1. IEA 2020. All rights reserved.
Applying behavioural
insights to demand
side energy policies
and programmes:
where do we stand?
Elisabetta Cornago
Users TCP Academy – 8 October 2020

2. IEA 2020. All rights reserved.
Outline
• What are behavioural insights and how can they support the energy policy process?
• Case studies: how are behavioural insights used to encourage energy efficiency in
- Residential building and appliances
- Transport and mobility
- Businesses
• Key take-aways from case study analysis

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What are behavioural insights, or BIs?
Behavioural
sciences
Neurosciences Psychology
Behavioural
economics
What are the drivers of
individual behaviour?
How can policy support
behaviour change?
What behavioural mechanisms affect energy
consumption and associated decisions?
What behavioural barriers
• …prevent flexible and efficient energy use?
• …hinder investment in energy efficient renovations,
renewable energy?
• …block the uptake of sustainable mobility?

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How can BIs support the energy policy process?
1. Identify behavioural mechanisms acting
as barriers to behaviour change
Feedback is not
available
Choices have effects that arise
in the distant future
Choices are
complex/infrequent
Routine behaviour
Feedback
mechanisms
Simplification
and framing of
information
Social norms
and
comparisons
2. Design policies and utility programmes
to address them with the right “levers”

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Residential buildings and
appliances
• Promoting lower energy
consumption in
residential buildings
• Promoting investment in
energy efficient appliances
and retrofits
• Increasing the uptake of
renewable energy
among residential users
Transport and mobility
• Supporting purchases of
fuel efficient vehicles
• Encouraging walking,
cycling and public
transport use
• Limiting the use of private
motorized vehicles in
urban areas
Businesses and other
organisations
• Encourage businesses to
reduce energy
consumption
• Encourage employees to
make their workplace
behaviour more energy
efficient
We analyse over 40 case studies across three sectors

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Who applies BIs to energy policies and programmes?

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Where do we observe energy-related BI applications?

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Some concrete examples of BI applications

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1. Feedback provision: Home Energy Reports, digital devices
Big data from smart meters enable utilities to provide detailed feedback through well-designed,
intuitive tools (letters, displays…), prompting consumers to take action to save energy
Monthly feedback: home energy reports (HERs) by utilities
These are reports including social comparisons
• Japan: -2% in electricity consumption
• Malaysia: -1% to 3%
• United States: -2% on average, but up to 6%
Real-time feedback through smart digital devices
• UK, smart meters and in-home displays:
• -1.5% in gas consumption, -2.2% in electricity consumption
• UK, smart thermostats:
• -4.5% to 5% in gas consumption, without loss of thermal comfort

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2. Goal setting and prompts for demand response programmes
Energy utilities use higher levels of customer engagement and gamification through
goal setting and regular prompts to reduce energy consumption, esp. at peak time
Australia:
• Demand response challenges during 3-hour
windows in exchange for small rewards
• Electricity consumption reduced by 25-42%
Canada:
• Year-long challenge to curb 10% of
power consumption in exchange for 50$
• Households often overshoot the objective

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3: Simplification and framing of energy efficiency labels
Framing and simplification of information can improve consumer
understanding of well-established policy tools like energy efficiency labels
BIs have informed large scale reforms of energy efficiency labels
• EU: redesign of appliance energy efficiency labels, A to G scale
• US: fuel economy labels include information on fuel costs, savings,
and gallons per mile

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4: Travel planning and gamification for sustainable mobility
Structural barriers to sustainable mobility need to be addressed, but BI-informed “soft”
transport policy can overcome some behavioural barriers, boosting walking and cycling
• UK: Sustainable travel towns initiative
• Multiple “soft” transport policy measures:
• personalised travel planning; workplace and school travel planning
• awareness campaigns; promotion of walking, cycling and public transport;
• -9% car driver trips per person
• +10-22% bus trips
• +26-30% cycling trips, +10-13% walking trips
• Australia: Change to walking initiative
• Maps of local footpaths and worksheets for parents;
• Games for schoolkids
• +34% in active mobility

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5: Increasing relevance of energy efficiency for businesses
Netherlands: workshop for energy managers
- How to calculate benefits of EE investment  How to communicate them to top management
- Translate benefits into business key performance indicators
UK: how to raise the profile of energy audits?
- Audit sign-off be should be done by two board-level Directors
- Average priority placed on energy efficiency at board level has increased
Framing information on energy efficiency investment in terms of business-specific
benefits helps to make it relevant and to ensure it reaches decision-makers

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Key take-aways from case study analysis

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Need to shift from pilot projects to full-scale policies
Most policy applications are pilots, while utility programmes have also been rolled out at full-scale.
A lot of action at national level, but several successful interventions at local or business level too.
Scale of implementation
Specific business or
building
5
Local / Municipal
7
State / Canton /
Province
5
National
23
International
1Full scale
policy
4
Full scale
programme
12Trial
22
Level of implementation

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The toolkit of behavioural levers is not exploited to its fullest
Behavioural levers
0 10 20 30 40 50
Changes to the default policy or product specifications
Changes to product design and to the physical environment
Goal setting and commitment devices
Reward schemes
Simplification and framing of information
Use of feedback mechanisms
Use of social norms and comparisons

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BIs can also enhance the impacts of “traditional” policies
• Careful design makes energy efficiency labels better understood and more impactful
• Increase impact and acceptability of city congestion pricing
- London used BIs to design both the mechanism and the communications
• Increase response to dynamic energy pricing by making it salient and easier to adjust to
- US: critical peak pricing prompts higher energy savings than rebates
• Rethink product specifications and standards with smart defaults:
- India: as of January 2020, new room air conditioners have a default set-point
temperature of 24°

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Conclusions
• Shifting from pilot projects to full-scale policies
• Most interventions focus on households and individuals rather than organisation and
business behaviours
• Residential buildings and appliances
• Changing habits: scale-up successful programmes, ensure persistency of energy-saving efforts
• Prompting investment: consider community investment schemes exploiting social norms; reduce hassle
factor associated with large-scale investments
• Transport and mobility
• Context-specific interventions to support sustainable mobility, based on local behavioural diagnostics
• Energy efficiency in businesses
• Sector-specific narratives for energy efficiency should leverage key performance indicators

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Thank you

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