Information and Financial Incentives to Increase Residential Demand Flexibility in an EV Smart-Charging App

Last registered on December 09, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information and Financial Incentives to Increase Residential Demand Flexibility in an EV Smart-Charging App
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017151
Initial registration date
December 08, 2025

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
December 09, 2025, 8:20 AM EST

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

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Victoria Chiseliov
Affiliation
Universiteit Gent
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Marten Ovaere
PI Affiliation
Universiteit Gent
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-11-09
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
residential electricity demand flexibility, EV smart charging, managed charging, automation
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
As EV adoption grows, residential evening peaks and limited flexibility hinder renewable integration and raise capacity costs. Smart charging can shift load to low-cost, low-carbon hours, but doing so requires vehicles to be plugged in to the charger long enough to allow maximize smart-charging. Many households under-plug due to inattention and weak marginal incentives. We test whether simple, scalable interventions can overcome these obstacles. First, informational reminders reduce inattention by highlighting the benefits of keeping the EV plugged in to the home charger. Second, a per-hour financial incentive directly rewards availability, expanding the feasible window for automated smart charging regardless of immediate energy draw. In a randomized experiment with Belgian customers already using a smart-charging app, we identify the effects of reminders and per-hour incentives on plug-in duration and smart-charged kWh, providing policy- and industry-relevant evidence on tools to increase demand-side flexibility.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chiseliov, Victoria and Marten Ovaere. 2025. "Information and Financial Incentives to Increase Residential Demand Flexibility in an EV Smart-Charging App." AEA RCT Registry. December 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17151-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
To increase residential demand flexibility, we conduct a field experiment with 552 Flemish households that own an EV and use a smart-charging app. We measure the effects of financial incentives and information provision on plug in behavior at home, with the goal of maximizing smart charging and expanding the time window over which demand can be shifted.
Households will be exposed to one of the following treatments:
1. Information provision: will receive an email reminding them to increase their smart charging potential.
2. Financial incentive + Information provision: will receive an email informing them that for the next four months they will receive 0.01 € for each hour they plug in their EV to the home charger.
3. Control group: will never receive communications requesting to plug-in their EV more consistently nor any additional financial incentive.
Intervention Start Date
2025-12-09
Intervention End Date
2026-04-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Hours each EV is plugged-in to the home charger and smart charging, hours each EV is not plugged in to the home charger but is reachable, Time charging while not smart charging.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Residential electricity (kWh) consumption (total, off-peak and on-peak), Charging speed (kW), Distance driven (km), Amount earned for plugging in, Electricity bill, Amount earned for using the smart charging App, Number of gas household appliances, Number of electric household appliances, Email receipt acknowledgment rate.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will run a field experiment with 552 Flemish households that own an EV and use a smart-charging app, integrated into their usual smart meter app, to increase their smart charging by incentivizing them to increase the hours they plug in their EV to the home charger. Individuals will be randomized into one of three groups: (1) Information provision who receive a monthly email reminding them to increase their smart-charging potential by plugging in their EV to the home charger; (2) Financial incentive + Information provision, who receive an email informing them that, for the next four months, they will earn €0.01 for each hour their EV is plugged in to the home charger to maximize smart charging as well as a request to plug in more as part of the information provision treatment; (3) A control group who will not receive any communications nor additional financial incentives. The primary behavior targeted is EV plug in duration to facilitate smart charging and increase flexibility. Randomization unit is at household level and will take place prior to any incentives being administered.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Stratified randomization done in office by a computer using the randtreat Stata command.
Randomization Unit
Household.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
552 households
Sample size: planned number of observations
552 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
184 households in each of the 2 treatment groups and 184 households in the control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Ghent University
IRB Approval Date
2025-12-08
IRB Approval Number
UG-EB 2025-AQ
Analysis Plan