Research Report (Centre for Development Support)

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    Behaviour analysis of households selected for participation in a load-management pilot programme
    (University of the Free State, 2010) Pelser, André; van Rooyen, Deidré; Botes, Lucius
    This report stems from an initiative by Eskom Research to investigate the viability of new technology that will allow the power utility to limit the power supply to individual households during peak and off-peak time periods, rather than resorting to all-out blackouts. It is believed that the new technology will enable residential consumers to control their energy consumption in order to assist Eskom the better to manage the load on the national grid during high-demand periods. In a first step to assess the effectiveness of the Utility Load Manager (ULM), Eskom Research initiated a pilot programme in Gauteng Province. The Centre for Development Support (CDS) at the University of the Free State was commissioned to monitor both the experiences and the behavioural change of the pilot population regarding the installation of a ULM in selected households. This document mainly reports on the findings of two primary surveys – briefly referred to as the benchmark and the monitor surveys - among a sample of residential electricity consumers who participated in the said pilot programme. The surveys were built on a similar survey conducted in April 2008 among a limited sample of electricity consumers as part of the field trial of the load-limiter device and display. During the 2009-2010 roll-out of the load management pilot programme, a third (secondary) survey was also conducted amongst a sample of non-participants, i.e. households who, though invited to participate in the programme, declined to do so. The purpose of this survey was to capture and document the reasons for failing to take part in the pilot programme. The findings of this survey are reported in Section 5 of this report. The two primary surveys set the following aims: (i) to profile the energy-consumption patterns of the selected households to serve as a benchmark for tracking future behavioural change in this regard; (ii) to document the experience and perceptions of the selected households following the installation and use of the ULM; (iii) to determine the confidence levels amongst the selected households pertaining to their adaptation to, and usage of, the display; (iv) to identify any significant correlations between the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the sampled population, on the one hand, and their adaptation to and usage of the display, on the other; and, (v) to identify any requirements in respect of education that might be necessary to strengthen the abilities of electricity consumers to operate the device.