A Behavioral Economics Approach to Residential Electricity Consumption
Authored by Luciano C Siebert, Adriana Sbicca, Alexandre Rasi Aoki, Germano Lambert-Torres
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.3390/en10060768
Sponsors:
Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
ODD
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Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Consumer behavior is complex and is difficult to represent in
traditional economic theories of decision-making. This paper focuses on
the development of an agent-based approach to analyze people's behavior
in consuming electricity using a behavioral economics framework, where
the consumer is the main agent of power systems. This approach may bring
useful insights for distribution companies and regulatory agencies,
helping to shift thinking to a more user-centric approach. The emergent
properties of electricity consumption are modeled by the means of
consumer's heuristics, taking into account the electricity price,
consumer's satisfaction level, willingness to invest in new
technologies, social interactions, and marketing strategies by the power
utility. Analysis on the emergent behavior of this approach through
simulation studies showed that it is indeed valuable, as does not
require in-depth data of all details on human behavior. However, it
contributes to the understanding of relations among various objects
involved in electricity consumption.
Tags
Agent-based modeling
Complex systems
models
Economics
Decision-Making
Consumer Behavior
Reduction
smart grids
Demand-side management
Demand
Technologies
Grids
Power-system