Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | APRIL 2023 | 25 Customers "There's a role for messaging, and chang- ing social norms so that people are not blamed for negative behaviours. Instead we should emphasise positive behaviours – if the majority of people are doing something good, we should use that to push the ones who are not to do better." Ana-Maria Millan will speak about the science of behaviour change on the Customers and Teams Challenge stage at Utility Week Live on 17 May. Playing catchup The science of behaviour change remains a fledgling field for utilities, and according to Toby Park, head of energy & sustainability at The Behavioural Insights Team – a former UK government unit turned social purpose company – energy companies are currently "a step or two ahead" of water companies in terms of exploring behavioural interventions. Nevertheless, he says energy companies still typically lack in-house behavioural sci- ence expertise and those that have "customer insights teams" typically take a less than sci- entific approach. "The technical knowledge to run behavioural trials, rigorously, is not always available in-house, although I sus- pect that may change," says Park. Toby Park will speak about the science of behaviour change on the Customers and Teams Challenge stage at Utility Week Live on 17 May. Growing public awareness of the impacts of climate change, resource scarcity and the rising cost of energy have helped push the debate around changing consumer habits forward in recent months. National Grid ESO hailed the success of its Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), implemented over the winter to incentivise consumers and suppliers to industrial and commercial users to voluntarily switch con- sumption away from peak times. Adopted by providers including Octopus Energy, Brit- ish Gas, EDF, and Ovo Energy, it delivered a reduction of almost 800 megawatt-hours up to the end of January. James Kerr, consumer strategy lead at National Grid ESO, says the system opera- tor was "pleasantly surprised" that more than 1.6 million households and businesses signed up to the DFS. He added that it was also pleasing that anecdotal evidence indi- cated a wide range of different types of con- sumers had been involved. "We're exploring this in more depth through an evaluation of the Demand Flexibility Service from a con- sumer lens and we'll be sharing some early insights at Utility Week Live," he says. In water, meanwhile, research conducted by South West Water in 2022 found that, ašer drought was declared across the region earlier that year, 79% of its customers said they planned to make long-term changes to reduce their water consumption. A precursor to encouraging water con- servation is understanding water usage, but this is complicated by the fact that many consumer behaviours remain hidden (little is known about water use in bathrooms, for instance), habitual, or subconscious. Recent research by CCW found a signifi- cant difference between consumers' reports about their kitchen sink habits and what they actually do. The study quizzed 15 dif- ferent households across England and Wales about their habits and compared the com- ments with real-life observations of behav- iour recorded on motion-sensitive cameras. It revealed that consumers ošen have difficulty accurately reporting their own behaviour, by trying to put a positive spin on it, and lack awareness of the link between water usage and the environment. Millan tells Utility Week: "Sometimes there's a disconnect. People perceive the UK as a wet country, so they think water is available all the time, or they don't con- nect their own actions with an effect on the environment." Consumer messaging is also important, she adds. Messages need to be targeted at the right audience and "any changes that you want to promote need to be small and not burdensome, or require people to invest money". To this end, Millan points to the suc- cess of recent consumer incentive schemes, including the Help Stop The Drop campaign run by South West Water to help restore res- ervoir reserves. With storage levels within Colliford Reservoir in Cornwall falling to their lowest recorded levels in 2022, the util- ity offered customers a £30 bill credit if the reservoir reached 30% storage capacity by the end of the year. Proving grounds Escalating energy prices, though painful for many consumers and businesses, have cre- ated arguably the ideal circumstances for the government and suppliers to encourage more energy efficient behaviour. According to official feedback from National Grid ESO on its Demand Flexibil- ity Service, the scheme motivated consumer engagement in "previously unseen and active ways beyond being passive energy end-users". It also helped people "under- stand the value they play in the energy sys- tem and 'feel' what a huge impact their small behavioural changes can have". The success of the initiative has inspired suppliers to experiment with new approaches to getting customers involved. Utilita Energy is testing how different ways of communicating with customers could affect their "strength of response" beyond the basic message that it will save them money. "One approach is baselining, telling cus- tomers the energy we expect them to use during a certain time of day and setting them a target to reduce it by," says Archie Lasse- ter, head of sustainability at Utilita Energy. "We also want to test out comparing custom- ers' energy saving to other similar users to see if that kind of peer-to-peer competition engenders any significant change in behav- iour in terms of whether they're more or less inclined to reduce consumption." Evidence has shown that making material changes to an individual's "choice environ- ment", for example introducing new incen- tives or norms, or altering the friction/ease of different options, is more effective at chang- ing behaviours than a focus on communica- tions alone. Nevertheless, according to Park, the sheer range of possible behaviours and audiences underlines the need for organisations to carry out careful analysis of barriers to adop- tion and develop interventions to suit. For example, in a scenario where an energy supplier wants to encourage heat pump adoption they "should absolutely be focusing on upfront costs, bringing forward long-term cost savings, making the adoption journey easier and de-risking the decision for consumers", says Parks. Very different solutions are required to encourage consumers to save energy at home, he says: "Information provision can be worthwhile here, for example our data shows that people routinely overestimate the energy savings associated with turning off lights, and they don't know how much energy they could save by reducing their boiler flow temperatures." Smart meters give customers insights into any wasteful energy consumption habits, and innovative technologies that drill deeper into usage data could help amplify the ben- efits in the longer term. Utilita offers a service to customers with internet-connected smart meters that dis- aggregates consumption data to give a breakdown on the amount of power used by individual appliances, such as the fridge freezer, games console, cooker, or washing 1617 MAY, NEC, BIRMINGHAM See this content brought to life at Utility Week Live. Register free at: utilityweeklive.co.uk continued overleaf

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