How public perceptions of unplanned power outage policies affect energy-saving behavioral intention: Evidence from China's social media mining

Shiwei Yu, Xingting Zhao, Xu Fang, Ya-Fang Sun and Yingying Guo

Energy Policy, 2025, vol. 206, issue C

Abstract: China's unplanned power outage (UPO) policies during extreme temperature events have sparked significant debate on social media. The impact of public perceptions of UPO policies on energy-saving behavioral intention remains unresolved. Hence, we explore this issue based on 76,392 social media posts related to China's UPO policies from 2021 to 2022, using text convolutional neural networks-bidirectional long short-term memory-attention and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The findings reveal that: 1) Public perceptions of UPO policies primarily focus on concerns related to production and livelihoods, power grid construction, energy policies, and energy conservation. 2) 50.6 % of the public opposes UPO policies, citing concerns about the power transmission from Sichuan to other provinces for public's asymmetric understanding of UPO policies, as well as the potential negative impacts on work, the health and well-being of the elderly and children. In contrast, 30.2 % express support, emphasizing the importance of energy conservation and power system construction. 3) The fsQCA model identifies two distinct sets of core conditions that can independently enhance public energy-saving behavioral intention: one is public perceptions of power grid construction and extreme weather, while the other is public perceptions of salary and a negative attitude towards UPO policies.

Keywords: Energy-saving behavioral intention; Unplanned power outage policies; Social media mining; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:206:y:2025:i:c:s0301421525002344

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2025.114727

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