Take the Load Off: Time and Technology as Determinants of Electricity Demand Response

Megan R. Bailey, David Brown, Blake Shaffer and Frank A. Wolak

No 33836, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: As electricity systems transition toward more variable renewable energy, flexible demand has emerged as a critical tool for grid management. Yet a fundamental question remains: are emerging smart technologies sufficient to unlock demand response, or does human behavior remain the critical barrier? Our field experiment examines this question through a novel approach that individually randomizes peak event timing for each participating household, allowing us to leverage both within-subject and between-subject variation. We compare the response to “peak events” on electricity consumption for households equipped with three distinct demand response programs: a fully automated system requiring no action; app-enabled smart devices requiring minimal effort; and traditional manual adjustments. The results are striking—households with passive, automated responses reduced consumption five times more than those required to take any action at all, even when the burden is greatly reduced via smart technology. The provision of enabling technologies alone made no difference in households’ responsiveness, as compared to a fully manual setting, when active participation was still required. These findings reveal that the opportunity cost of time and effort—not technology limitations—may be the fundamental obstacle to unlocking electricity demand flexibility. To achieve its full potential, “smart home” technologies need to incorporate these behavioral realities as barriers to responsiveness.

JEL-codes: L94 Q41 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: EEE IO
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33836.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Take the Load Off: Time and Technology as Determinants of Electricity Demand Response (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33836

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33836
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().