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Field
Trial Status
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Before
in_development
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After
completed
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Field
Abstract
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Before
Demand management has become an important strategy for utilities to address electricity production shortfalls and intermittent issues resulting from the transition to renewable energy. Many utilities apply increasing block tariffs to prevent pricing low-income households out of basic electricity access, while simultaneously discouraging wasteful overconsumption by high-income households. However, consumers' limited understanding of or attention to such complex pricing systems can result in private and socially sub-optimal behavior, rendering nonlinear pricing ineffective for energy conservation. This project aims to determine whether enhancing the understanding of energy use and nonlinear electricity pricing can help households respond to marginal pricing, thereby increasing energy conservation. We are conducting a large-scale experiment covering 45,000 users of a recently launched mobile app from a state-owned electric utility company in Vietnam. The treatment groups receive either a real-time app display of their estimated daily marginal prices or their total estimated bills to date, for a minimum of six months. To assess and compare the persistent effects of providing high-frequency nonlinear price and total cost information on consumer behavior, we will gather electricity billing data from the participants for one year before and after the experiment.
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After
Digital tools hold promise for scaling energy conservation by giving households real-time information about their electricity use and costs. Yet whether such app-based interventions can meaningfully reduce consumption depends on users’ engagement. We conduct a natural field experiment on a random sample of 45,000 electricity customers in Hanoi, Vietnam, that tested two mobile-app interventions built on the utility’s smart-meter platform. One treatment (“price salience”) displayed each household’s current marginal price tier and consumption to date; the other (“billing salience”) showed consumption and bill to date. Across the full sample, neither intervention reduced electricity use on average, and we can rule out effects as small as one percent. To understand this precise null, we examine engagement with the app and find no effects on the extensive margin, and only limited responses on the intensive margin. Among households that already engage with the app, the price-salience treatment modestly increased engagement and led to small consumption declines late in the billing cycle, when marginal prices rise mechanically under the nonlinear tariff. These results underscore both the promise and limits of digital behavioral tools for demand management -- while low-cost app integrations can inform attentive users, engagement does not necessarily scale with delivery, limiting the ability of such interventions to automatically generate population-level energy savings.
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Field
Trial Start Date
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Before
September 29, 2023
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After
October 01, 2023
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Field
Trial End Date
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Before
March 29, 2024
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After
June 30, 2024
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Field
Last Published
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Before
October 04, 2023 04:42 PM
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After
December 25, 2025 08:00 AM
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Field
Study Withdrawn
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Before
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After
No
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Field
Intervention Completion Date
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Before
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After
June 30, 2024
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Field
Data Collection Complete
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Before
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After
Yes
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Field
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
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Before
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After
45,000
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Field
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
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Before
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After
No
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Field
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
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Before
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After
45,000
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Field
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
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Before
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After
15,000 for control, T1 and T2 each.
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Field
Data Collection Completion Date
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Before
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After
June 30, 2024
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
Different information is provided to the control and treatment groups via the newly launched utility's app.
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After
he experiment evaluates two information interventions delivered through the electricity utility’s mobile application using smart-meter data. One treatment provides households with real-time information on their current marginal price tier and cumulative electricity consumption, while the second provides real-time information on cumulative consumption and bill-to-date; the control group receives no additional pricing or billing information beyond the app’s standard features.
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Field
Intervention Start Date
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Before
September 29, 2023
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After
October 01, 2023
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Field
Intervention End Date
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Before
March 29, 2024
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After
June 30, 2024
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Field
Public analysis plan
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Before
No
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After
Yes
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