Behavioural factors' influence on energy savings

Energy consumption depends on various factors, such as equipment’s energy efficiency, comfort level, consumer’s behaviour and income. Equipment’s efficiency and consumer’s behaviour are crucial to achieve energy savings. The present paper focuses on the relation between energy savings and consumer’s behaviour. For the majority of demand side management measures, energy savings obtained are affected by behavioural factors, introduced by the consumers. The Portuguese Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) has developed a competitive mechanism for promoting efficiency in electricity consumption called PPEC (Demand-side Electricity Efficiency Plan). In this plan, energy efficiency measures, promoted by suppliers, network operators, consumers and energy agencies, etc, are evaluated and ranked by merit order. The merit of each measure is defined by a cost-benefit analysis. A methodology to consider the behavioural factors in the merit analysis of energy efficiency measures is presented in the paper.