Social Benchmarking Pilot Evaluation
Evaluation introduction
Over the past decade, social benchmarking programs, and most commonly home energy reports (HERs), have become a component of several utilities’ energy efficiency or conservation program portfolios. Social benchmarking programs leverage behavioural psychology and social norms to lower residential energy usage and/or increase consumer awareness of energy use by sending paper or electronic reports that compare a customer’s energy consumption to that of similar neighboring households. While the energy savings are small, they may produce substantial aggregate energy savings where they reach a large number of customers. As of 2014, no social benchmarking programs were yet implemented in Ontario, and the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) determined this conservation resource should be explored and tested for the Ontario market by piloting the program concept. The IESO then began a procurement process to put forward a call for pilot proposals from Ontario local distribution companies (LDCs). Three proposals were accepted from three LDCs: Hydro One Networks, Inc. (HONI), Horizon Utilities, and Milton Hydro. The overarching goals of the pilots, which began in the fall of 2014, were to:
Learn about the behavioural responses of Ontarians to social benchmarking interventions and how data availability (and therefore program eligibility) may vary across high/medium/low electricity usage customers;
Uncover lessons around deploying social benchmarking programs that maintain compliance with Ontario’s privacy legislation;
Respond to market interest in behavioural-based conservation programs; and
Take a first step towards a market transformation that will provide residential electricity customers with access to near real-time information about their energy usage through in-home devices or social benchmarking tools.
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