New Energy Demand Programs Acceptance - a Study of Residential Customers in Central Poland

Abstract

Energy market is changing from a central to a dispersed model of energy supply. All the energy market customers, including households, will have to deal with changing energy prices and they are expected to be more active in their energy usage and management. This demands new services and more information to be offered by energy supplier. Technology change gives now an opportunity to create new solutions, but the important problem to solve is how to find out customers’ expectations and needs. Besides the theoretical background on customer changing behavior regarding energy consumption, the paper presents the result of a survey conducted in April and May 2013 in Central Poland. The main objective of the study was to find out a current attitude of Polish residential customers towards new energy demand programs and active energy market participation. For the purpose of the study, a questionnaire was developed. In general, survey results show that customers are interested in Smart Grid solutions, the majority of them accept the installation of smart devices operated automatically, and they are ready to play an active role in the energy market. The research confirms that consumers are willing to take part in Demand Side Management (DSM) programs in order to save money and are open to socially responsible behavior. The results also show that saving money and reducing energy usage are not sufficient motivators for the customers, they expect some additional values added to new DSM programs. Therefore, a new approach to get residential customers involved in new energy demand programs is proposed and the idea of a new model of supplier – customer relationships is presented.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.83.1.6865