Designing Persuasive Technology To Manage Peak Electricity Demand In Ontario Homes

When it comes to environmental sustainability, the time that electricity is consumed matters. For example, using an air conditioner on a hot summer afternoon as the power grid is strained necessitates the use of more polluting sources to meet demand. In this paper, we analyze end-user response to two utility-driven conservation programs in Ontario, Canada: Time-of-Use pricing and the peaksaver program. We find that time-of-use pricing encourages shifting some electricity demand, but only when it is convenient. We also find that while potentially effective at a larger scale, the peaksaver program in its current form is unattractive to participants. These results are discussed in the context of Fogg's Behavior Model for Persuasive Design, which allows us to explore the design space for improvement to these programs and ground our design implications for the design of technologies to encourage reduction of peak electricity demand.