Data-driven method for providing feedback to households on electricity consumption

The building sector is a major energy consumer and CO₂ emitter, being responsible for approximately 40% of the total consumption in the EU. Active demand side participation of electricity customers is seen as crucial in the management and reduction of the building sector´s CO₂ emissions. However, today´s electricity markets are often lacking strong incentives for active demand side participation. Understandable customer specific comparison information and easy-to-use energy displays can be used to influence customer behaviour and encourage customer participation. This paper presents a data-driven method for producing household level comparison information, based on hourly interval smart meter data and additional household information. Firstly, the customers are segmented by the heating system and the type of housing, followed by weighted clustering that is used to refine the comparison group. In the weighted clustering, normalized load profiles together with properties of the dwelling and the residents are considered, and weights are assigned to the properties according to how much they contribute to the electricity consumption. In this paper, the initial experimental results are presented and discussed, and future development ideas are laid out. The method is under development and testing as a part of the Finnish SGEM-project.