CrowdFlex: Beta Utilisation Payments Mini-Trial 1

Last registered on May 13, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
CrowdFlex: Beta Utilisation Payments Mini-Trial 1
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013539
Initial registration date
May 01, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 13, 2024, 11:50 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Centre for Net Zero

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
USC
PI Affiliation
Centre for Net Zero
PI Affiliation
Centre for Net Zero

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-05-02
End date
2024-07-12
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This trial protocol summarises the approach for the first Utilisation Payments mini-trial within CrowdFlex: Beta.
A trial protocol for the first Availability Payments mini-trial and all subsequent mini-trials will come later in 2024.
CrowdFlex will take an iterative and learning approach, altering the treatments in later mini-trials.
For the first utilisation mini-trial, we will be testing how different incentives (£ per kWh flexibility) cause domestic customers to turn-down or up their energy consumption during event windows.
Each Demand Side Response Service Provider (DSRSP) will have four groups (n=9,600 per group) exposed to different payment levels, and a fifth waitlisted group that will serve as a control group
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bernard, Louise et al. 2024. "CrowdFlex: Beta Utilisation Payments Mini-Trial 1." AEA RCT Registry. May 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13539-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
See pre-analysis plan.
Intervention Start Date
2024-05-07
Intervention End Date
2024-07-12

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Electricity consumption during the event window (kWh per half-hour)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Our primary outcome of interest is customers’ electricity consumption during the event window. This will primarily be measured using customers’ smart meters, which record electricity consumption in 30-minute intervals, though asset level data may also be utilised where available.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Electricity consumption 24 hrs before/after the event window (event window specified in the event timetable)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Our secondary outcome of interest is customers’ electricity consumption outside the event window (24 hours before and after the event). This is to understand whether customers shift their energy consumption to half hours outside the event window versus whether the energy demand is created or destroyed. This will also be measured using smart meters and asset data where available.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See pre-analysis plan
Experimental Design Details
As discussed above, we recommend a wait-list randomisation to create a pure control group, with the rest of the customers randomly allocated into one of 5 groups.
From a marketing and comms perspective, if customers are signed-up into the CrowdFlex programme, they would expect to take part in at least some events. Thus, we have recommended inviting people to sign up to CrowdFlex but note in the invitation that the first set of events may be oversubscribed, and a waitlist will form. Customers in the control group may have the possibility of joining later trials. Note that the DSRSP does not have to use the terminology of a “waitlist”.
We suggest equal sized groups of at least 9,600 customers in each group. The waitlisted control group may be larger than the other groups if a DSRSP’s recruitment resulted in greater than 48,000 signups.
What is the unit of randomisation? Household
What is the unit of analysis? Household * half-hour combination
Will we stratify randomisation? We suggest using only one variable for stratification: GSP Group (14 levels).
As discussed above, DSRSPs should aim to have at least 600 participants per GSP group to ensure that the results are representative at the GSP group level.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Household
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
48,000 households
Sample size: planned number of observations
Given that there are 31 events comprising 107 half-hours, there will be 107 * 48,000 = 5,136,000 household*half-hours. However, note that there are 18 turn-down events (comprising 65 half-hours) and 11 turn-up events (comprising 37 half-hours). There are also 2 events (comprising 5 half-hours) where two out of 13 regions turn-up and 11 out of 13 events turn-down. Turn-down and turn-up will always be analysed separately.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
9,600 households (clusters) per treatment arm
With 107 half-hours in events, that entails 1,027,200 household*half-hours per treatment arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See pre-analysis plan for details. We expect an MDES of 0.03 kWh (<1% of baseline consumption) for the ~20 turn-down events where we have 9,600 customers per trial arm. We expect and MDES of 0.035 (just over 1%) for the ~10 turn-up events.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials