IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v5y2020i1d10.1038_s41560-019-0507-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health and financial impacts of demand-side response measures differ across sociodemographic groups

Author

Listed:
  • Lee V. White

    (The Ohio State University School of Environment and Natural Resources
    University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy
    Australian National University School of Regulation and Global Governance)

  • Nicole D. Sintov

    (The Ohio State University School of Environment and Natural Resources)

Abstract

Demand-side response (DSR) measures, which facilitate the integration of high shares of intermittent renewable generation into electric grids, are gaining prominence. DSR measures, such as time-of-use (TOU) rates, charge higher rates during high-demand ‘on-peak’ times. These rates may disproportionately impact the energy bills and health of vulnerable households, defined as those who face greater energy needs combined with greater social and financial pressures. Here we examine 7,487 households that took part in a randomized control TOU pilot in the southwestern United States. We found that assignment to TOU rather than control disproportionately increases bills for households with elderly and disabled occupants, and predicts worse health outcomes for households with disabled and ethnic minority occupants than those for non-vulnerable counterparts. These results suggest that vulnerable groups should be considered separately in DSR rate design, and future pilots should seek to determine which designs most effectively avoid exacerbating existing energy injustices or creating new ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee V. White & Nicole D. Sintov, 2020. "Health and financial impacts of demand-side response measures differ across sociodemographic groups," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 50-60, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41560-019-0507-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0507-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-019-0507-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-019-0507-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Calver, Philippa & Simcock, Neil, 2021. "Demand response and energy justice: A critical overview of ethical risks and opportunities within digital, decentralised, and decarbonised futures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    2. Ribó-Pérez, David & Heleno, Miguel & Álvarez-Bel, Carlos, 2021. "The flexibility gap: Socioeconomic and geographical factors driving residential flexibility," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    3. Bo wang & Nana Deng & Wenhui Zhao & Zhaohua Wang, 2022. "Residential power demand side management optimization based on fine-grained mixed frequency data," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 316(1), pages 603-622, September.
    4. Barjaková, Martina & Belton, Cameron & Purcell, Karl & Lunn, Pete, 2021. "Efficient ways of communicating time-of-use electricity tariffs in Ireland: Plain and simple," Papers WP704, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    5. Hammerle, Mara & Burke, Paul J., 2022. "From natural gas to electric appliances: Energy use and emissions implications in Australian homes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    6. Chad Zanocco & Tao Sun & Gregory Stelmach & June Flora & Ram Rajagopal & Hilary Boudet, 2022. "Assessing Californians’ awareness of their daily electricity use patterns," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(12), pages 1191-1199, December.
    7. Gianluca Trotta & Kirsten Gram-Hanssen & Pernille Lykke Jørgensen, 2020. "Heterogeneity of Electricity Consumption Patterns in Vulnerable Households," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.
    8. Baik, Sosung & Hines, Jeffrey F. & Sim, Jaeung, 2023. "Racial disparities in the energy burden beyond socio-economic inequality," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    9. Cappers, Peter A. & Todd-Blick, Annika, 2021. "Heterogeneity in own-price residential customer demand elasticities for electricity under time-of-use rates: Evidence from a randomized-control trial in the United States," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41560-019-0507-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.