Goal-setting: Encouraging peak-avoidance in electricity consumption

Interventions：Receives messages via SMS every Wednesday for 8 weeks.
Control Group: Receives weather forecast information.
Knowledge Group: Receives knowledge message.
Goal Setting Group - 5%: Receives goal-setting messages aiming to shift peak hours electricity usage by 5%.
Goal Setting Group - 15%: Receives goal-setting messages aiming to shift peak hours electricity usage by 15%.
Goal Setting Group - 25%: Receives goal-setting messages aiming to shift peak hours electricity usage by 25%.
Monetary Incentive Group: Receives monetary incentive messages rewarding reductions in peak usage.

2024-07-17

2024-09-04

1. Household Electricity Usage - During the Experiment
2. Household Electricity Usage - After the Experiment
3. Peak Avoidance Behaviour - During the Experiment

1. Household Electricity Usage - During the Experiment: This experiment will obtain the hourly electricity usage of users during peak, off-peak, and shoulder periods through the company's system during the experiment period.
2. Household Electricity Usage - After the Experiment: After the intervention ends, this experiment will continue to track users' electricity usage behaviour for 2-3 months. By continuing to track the households' electricity usage patterns, we can observe whether their peak avoidance behaviour persists in the long term.
3. Peak Avoidance Behavior - During the Experiment: By comparing users' electricity consumption during the experiment with their historical electricity consumption, this experiment explores whether users choose to shift their electricity usage from peak periods to off-peak and shoulder periods.

Experiment Design Description
This experiment aims to evaluate the effectiveness of various interventions—knowledge dissemination, goal setting, and monetary incentives—on encouraging peak-avoidance behavior in electricity consumption among residential users in Chongqing, China. The design involves six treatment groups, each with approximately 5000 subjects, and will span a period of 8 weeks.

1.Treatment Groups
(1) Control Group: Receives only weather forecast information.
(2) Knowledge Group: Receives information on peak electricity periods, the negative impacts of excessive peak electricity consumption, and tips on how to shift usage to off-peak times.
(3) Goal Setting Group - 5%: Encouraged to reduce peak electricity usage by 5% compared to the same week last year.
(4) Goal Setting Group - 15%: Encouraged to reduce peak electricity usage by 15% compared to the same week last year.
(5) Goal Setting Group - 25%: Encouraged to reduce peak electricity usage by 25% compared to the same week last year.
(6) Monetary Incentive Group: Offered a financial reward for reducing peak electricity usage, with a reward of 0.5 yuan for every 1% reduction in peak usage.

2. Randomization
The randomization process will use data from 28,739 households who have not joined the time-of-use plan. Households are randomly assigned to one of the six groups using stratified randomization based on their electricity consumption data from May 13-19, 2024, and July 3-9, 2023. The stratification ensures balanced distribution of key indicators, including electricity usage during different periods (off-peak, flat-rate, and peak) on both weekdays and weekends.

3. Sample Size
Each treatment group consists of approximately 5000 households, resulting in a total sample size of 28,739 households.

Not available

Stratified randomization by STATA

Household

No

28739 households

28739 households

Control group (4892)
Knowledge group (4778)
Goal setting group - 5% (4763)
Goal setting group - 15% (4734)
Goal setting group - 25% (4720)
Monetary incentive group (4852)

Unit of measurement: change of hourly average electricity consumption during peak hours. For an error probability of alpha = 0.05, a power of 1- k = 0.95, and the standardized minimum detectable effect size is 0.1, N =1278 per treatment group.