Peak pricing in Norway – A large-scale field experiment

Abstract

Using detailed electricity consumption data for about 15,000 households in Norway, we conduct an RCT to evaluate the impact of interventions aimed at reducing residential electricity consumption during peak load days. The main intervention increases the price of consuming electricity in the afternoon and early evening on 9 selected days in the period November 2019-April 2020. Event days were announced by text messages the day before the intervention. Results show a 19% reduction in electricity consumption during peak pricing in the treatment group relative to the control. Interestingly, electricity consumption reduction is not tied to households having access to real time consumption data. Furthermore, although electric car households reduce electric consumption slightly more than non-electric car households, the reduction in electricity consumption is observed across our entire sample, including low-electricity consumption households. by Cloe Garnache, Anders Imenes, and Øystein Hernæs