A look at one's own energy consumption (Intelliekon)

Duration: 01.02.2008 - 31.01.2011

Using Intelligent Meter, Communications and Tariff Systems to Foster Sustainable Energy Consumption in Private Households (Intelliekon)

Background
The issue of energy conservation has been around for at least 30 years now, flanked by numerous campaigns and scientific studies. And yet, rather than declining, energy consumption in private households has risen over the years - despite the fact that appliances have become increasingly energy-efficient. For this reason, both the political sector and social players continue to call for a reduction in consumption levels.
In Germany, the spread of smart metering technology is being fostered not only by the EU Directive 2006/32/EC on energy end-use efficiency and energy services which calls for a nine per cent reduction in energy consumption in all EU Member States by the year 2015 but also by federal legislation on the liberalisation of the energy market and on metered data collection firms.
The amendment of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) requires meter operators and energy providers to install intelligent meters starting in the year 2010. This has sparked numerous (usually technical) pilot projects in Germany's nation-wide supply network in recent years and will stimulate the installation of intelligent meters in more and more private households throughout all of Europe in the future.

Project aims
Working together with energy providers and equipment manufacturers, this project is developing and testing feedback instruments with an eye to consumers' everyday life. These feedback instruments will make energy consumption in private households transparent and thus put people into a position to reduce their energy needs by taking appropriate action. The prerequisites for this are innovative measuring and metering technologies (smart metering) and corresponding communications channels between private households and energy providers. This project is conducting market analyses and household surveys to determine how this type of feedback would have to be designed and organised (including the technical parameters) so that it can best integrated into the daily routines of private households and help encourage users to reduce their energy consumption substantially on the basis of this feedback. The project also plans to ascertain the potential energy savings this type of feedback could generate and to test how this strategy could be best linked with other instruments for fostering energy efficiency.

Project management
Sebastian Gölz
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems
Heidenhofstraße 2
79110 Freiburg, Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 761/ 45 88-0
E-Mail: sebastian.goelz(at)ise.fraunhofer.de
Web: http://www.ise.fhg.de/

Research partners
Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems)
Institute for Social-Ecological Research ISOE
Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI
EVB Energie

Field partners
Energieversorgung Oelde (Oelde power utilities)
SVO Energie GmbH (Celle municipal utilities)
SWK SETEC (Krefeld municipal utilities)
Stadtwerke Bremen (Bremen municipal utilities)
Stadtwerke Hassfurt (Hassfurt municipal utilities)
Stadtwerke Münster (Münster municipal utilities)
Stadtwerke Schwerte (Schwerte municipal utilities)
Stadtwerke Ulm (Ulm municipal utilities)
Technische Werke Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern municipal utilities)
Linz Strom AG (Linz municipal utilities)

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