Research and analysis: Early Findings: demand side management

By HM Government

Updated: Latest findings documents published.

Further analysis of the data collected through this survey has been undertaken and these reports present some of the research findings.

‘Early Findings: Demand Side Management' includes 24-hour demand profiles for the 250 households, examining peak power and demand shifting, standby power, baseload power, secondary electric heating, and 24/7 appliances.

As a complement to this report we have developed an interactive spreadsheet that allows users to work with the data easily themselves. The spreadsheet allows users to generate daily load profiles for different households selected from the sample of 250 households and you can download it via this Hightail link. **Please note this spreadsheet is .xlsm format and functions with excel 2007 and subsequent versions; select “enable macros”. File size 14MB.

‘Electrical Appliances at Home: Tuning in to Energy Savings' presents an in depth look at the ownership and usage of electrical appliances in homes. This includes an analysis of annual purchase and replacement rates, energy ratings, the associations of use of different appliances, potential savings from small appliances and as assessment of the rebound effect.

‘Consumer Archetypes' aims to perform a comprehensive cluster analysis on the data and group the 250 monitored households into a series of distinct consumer archetypes based on household attitudes to the environment, demographics, building details and electricity usage characteristics.

‘Increasing Insight and UK Applicability' aims to increase the insights that can be extracted from the data and to more accurately scale up the findings to give a national picture. The report utilises a large spatially resolved demographic dataset, Experian's Mosaic UK, to link each household to a specific group and to assess the suitability of this association along with how it can be applied to better understand UK electricity use.

‘The Potential for Smart Meters in a National Household Energy Survey' provides an overview of one approach to maximising the benefits of Smart Meters, by establishing a National Household Energy Survey. This would recruit a representative sample of consumers who agreed to give remote access to their meter data for ongoing, anonymised analysis and reporting of how electricity is being used in homes. The report looks at some of the benefits of this type of survey and provides estimates of potential cost.

The original report for the Household Electricity Survey is also available above.

Energy Storage powering Up

One of the biggest concerns with many forms of renewable energy is their inability to store active energy during times when the sun isn't out, or when the wind isn't blowing.  With these energies gaining popularity and growing at an impressive rate, it seems as though establishing an efficient form of energy storage is a foregone conclusion for the future.

Policy paper: Energy Act policy briefs

By HM Government

Updated: The Energy Act received Royal Assent on 18 December 2013. The policy briefs have all been amended to reflect the change to an Act.

Policy briefs covering the main measures included in the Energy Act.

June Update

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Too many EU citizens and businesses unaware of environmental issues
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B&Q 'well on way' to 90% carbon slash by 2023
B&Q has reduced its CO2 emissions by 29% against a 2006/7 baseline, despite a 10% increase in total square footage of its stores, according to the company's annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report released today.

IEA plan could stop emissions growth by 2020 at no net economic cost
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has urged governments to adopt four policies that it claims will stop growth in energy-related emissions by 2020 at no net economic cost.

DHL to 'drive better results' with carbon cutting truck design
Logistics company DHL has unveiled a prototype hybrid electric truck which it claims could reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by up to 25%.

UK law firms cut carbon emissions by almost 2%
Leading UK law firms have reduced carbon emissions by 1.8%, more than 29,000 tonnes of CO2, over the past 12 months, according to a report published today.

BREAKING: Sir Robert Smith appointed temporary chair of energy and climate change committee
Sir Robert Smith will replace Conservative MP Tim Yeo as chairman of the energy and climate change committee, following Yeo's decision to temporarily step down amidst lobbying allegations.

Tim Yeo stands down as committee chairman following lobbying claims
Tim Yeo has agreed to temporarily step aside as chairman of the energy and climate change select committee following allegations that he offered to advise energy companies for cash.