Electricity Consumption And Consumer Behaviour
Shubham Upadhyay
Omkar Wagh
Electrical Department
Electrical Department
Lokmanya Tilak College of
Lokmanya Tilak College of
Engineering
Engineering
Navi Mumbai, India
Navi Mumbai, India
shubhamupadhyay281@gmail.com
omkarwagh48@gmail.com
Prof. Ninad Totre
Electrical Department
Lokmanya Tilak College of
Engineering
Navi Mumbai, India
ninadtotre@rediffmail.com
Abstract— Consumption as a whole is an essential term for
measuring or calculating the amount of a particular
commodity being utilized. As far as electricity is concerned, the
consumers seldom pay attention to the electricity bills they
receive unless the bills are more than usual. Hence it is a
necessity to be aware about the reasons in variation of electric
consumption. As consumer behavior is a subset of human
behavior, it is quite difficult to map and link the behavior
pattern of a particular individual with respect to electric
consumption. In this paper, a survey has been conducted to
observe behavioral pattern of an average consumer by means
of a questionnaire. On the basis of data collected of survey,
behavioral models of consumption are created to examine the
behavioral pattern of an average consumer.
Keywords—Electricity, Consumption, Behavior Pattern,
Consumer, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Tools, Consumer
Lifestyle.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electricity, being one of the most basic necessities of human
life, it has now become essential to monitor its consumption
and to observe the behavioral pattern of a consumer. Hence,
study for the same is important so as to manage the growing
energy demands & to gain control over unnecessary
consumption determinants. For the same, observations are
made with respect to energy profiles of individuals and their
interactions. In this paper, we provide a detailed statistical
analysis by means of survey conducted on the basis of
certain influential factors such as social, cultural, weather,
economic, household demographics etc. on electric
consumption and consumer behavior by means of statistical
tools. These statistical tools help us to provide an insight to
create models of consumer’s behavioral characteristics, their
demands for electricity & variations with respect to
influential and contributing factors. As a result, the
interrelationship between different influential factors show
how consumer reacts and responds to various determinants
of electric consumption. The behavior varies according to
specific situations in consumer’s lifestyle.
Hence, steps must be taken on how different factors must be
manipulated to improve efficient energy consumption in
future.
Rahul Shevde
Electrical Department
Lokmanya Tilak College of
Engineering
Navi Mumbai, India
rahul.shevde.07@gmail.com
II. PREVIOUS WORK
Until now, there are three major modelling approaches for
household electricity consumption. These approaches are
limited due to less availability of data. They are:
1) Top-Down approach: It focuses on the interaction
between electricity consumption and economic factors at a
higher level using aggregated socio-economic data[5].
2) Bottom-up approach: It statistically analyses household
data based on survey and electricity consumption
readings[5].
3) Physical model approach: It models physically measured
data on specified houses, their appliances and technologies.
All three approaches have their own pros and cons due to
difference in nature of their input data and assessment
capability. Top-down models are mostly high-level studies
and analyse highly aggregated data at a national scale. The
majority of papers focus on analysing the socio-economic
impacts of the electricity sector, whereas Bottom-up
modelling uses segregated data to evaluate the impact of
various factors on electricity consumption. Some bottom up
approaches use samples of houses’ building physics to
represent larger housing stock, combining building
electricity calculations with statistical methods[5].
Number of international studies have focused on better
understanding of household electricity demand[5].
A. Top Down Approach
In Italy, a study used a top down approach to forecast annual
residential electricity consumption using a multiple linear
regression model. The study utilized a correlation to analyze
the sensitivities and relationships between aggregated power
demand and a set of demographic variables[7].
Another study in Italy considered ageing population’s
impact on energy consumption. In the model presented in
this study, although changes in the age composition of the
population might generate shifts in consumption, it also
results in slower economic growth. For Italy, population
ageing has significant negative supply side effects which
reduce the overall energy use in the economy, and thus
carbon emissions[8].
B. Bottom Up Approach
In Canada, a study used a bottom up approach utilising the
Canadian Hybrid Residential End Use Energy and
Greenhouse Gas Emission Model (CHREM) – a statistical
method to analyse national residential energy consumption.
The model takes into consideration appliances, lighting, and average electricity bill (in terms of Rs.) is considered for
domestic hot water to forecast national annual energy plotting the model.
consumption. This study used the national Survey of
Household Energy Use (SHEU) undertaken in 1993[10]. IV. METHODOLOGY
The study initiated with exploring previous researches
C. Potential Strengths and Limitatons conducted in the same field. Several research papers were
The top-down approach provides a focused analysis which examined and necessary points for reference were selected.
considers the links between the economy and the energy Also, the national level surveys of government were
sector at a higher level, but generally lacks technological examined in order to know exactly how a nation-wide
detail and therefore cannot examine technological related analysis is performed. After completing the literature survey,
impacts. The bottom-up approach generally provides a Factors like social, cultural, regulation, climate are
considered as constraints. Factors such as age group, income,
better understanding of the technologically driven electric
basic electrical appliances, their frequency of usage,
consumption. However, it may require a larger sample size
consumption by means of electrical bills are selected that
and its reliability may depend on historical data which is not affected both consumption and consumer behaviour. These
always made available[5]. factors were studied in detail for better understanding of the
D. In India subject.
The household electricity sector module is a tool kit which
will allows users and modelers to examine, explore, study
and run a diverse number of situations. The approach which
is used in this model focuses mainly on the ownership and
the use of a house and its occupants’ electricity-consuming
electrical appliances. To show and exhibit its working two
ways are chosen. In first way which is based on the
maximum efficiency level which can be achieved on all the
currently in use appliances since 2008 in our country. The
second has higher energy efficiency and calculates the
decrease in the electrical consumption build exclusively on
engineering presumptions. The difference in the terminal
year of modelling is considerable. In reality however,
the reduction in expected gains from new technologies that
increase the efficiency of resource use, because of
behavioral or other systemic responses would drop down
some of the potential savings. It is interesting to note that, in
the first way of approach towards modelling, even though
the GDP increases at an annual average rate of 7.8 % the
modelling time period from 2005 to 2031, household
electricity usage grows by an average yearly rate of 5.8
percent, or as per 74 percent of GDP growth. As the
household size is decreasing, this means that income
flexibility is now even smaller when housing units are
considered as electrical energy consuming loads. From
2008, due to establishment, institution and launch of highly
efficient electrical equipment and appliances will obviously Figure.1:-Influention Factors taken in considertaion
help us to contain the growth of household unit's electrical Hence, it came to our attention that to represent the
power consumption. These findings need to be examined relationship between electric consumption and consumer
further by sensitivity analysis and with the help of other behaviour, a mathematical expression is essential[5]. The
studies and careful analysis. But there is a problem which is mathematical expression selected is as follows:
effect of popularity and technology. For most appliances, an Yi = Ai + Bi + Di + e (1)
analysis of different rounds of NSS data reveals increasing
ownership at the same household expenditure level[6]. Where Yi = Electricity Consumption

III. DATA COLLECTION Ai = Household Appliances Effect

The data obtained for behavioral analysis came through a
survey consisting series of questions which had either
multiple choice or checkbox responses. The survey covered
over 180 households which are located all over Mumbai.
The questionnaire consisted questions regarding the number
of electrical appliances in an individual’s house, the
duration for utilizing the devices, the frequency of utilizing,
the no. of occupants in the house, no. of employed persons,
annual income and availability of electric power. Also, an
Bi = Behavioural Effect
Di = Household Demographics Effects
e = Errors / Deviations
As it can be observed, electricity consumption is a function
of associated affecting factors which contain sub factors for
each term individually. The terms are further explained in
terms of equations as follows

Ai = γ1*AC + γ2*FG + γ3*EI + γ4*EG + γ5*LT + γ6*TV +
γ7*WM (2)
where γ1 to γ7 are coefficient vectors according to different
impact factors, variable AC stands for effects due to no. of
air conditioners, variable FG stands for effects due to no. of
refrigerators, variable EI for effects due to no. of Electric
Iron, variable EG for effects of no. of Geyser, LT for effects
due to no. of lights and lamps, TV for effects due to no. of
Television and WM for effects due to no. of Washing
Machine[5].
Bi = β1*AC + β2*FG + β3*EI + β4*EG + β5*LT + β6*TV +
β7*WM (3)
where β1 to β7 are coefficient vectors according to different
impact factors, variable AC stands for effects due to
frequency of usage of air conditioners, variable FG stands for
effects due to frequency of usage of refrigerators, variable EI
for effects due to frequency of usage of Electric Iron,
variable EG for effects of frequency of usage of Geyser, LT
for effects due to frequency of usage of Lights and Lamps,
TV for effects due to frequency of usage of Television and
WM for effects due to frequency of usage of Washing
Machine[5].
Di = α1*I + α2*NumC0_10 + α3*NumC10_20 +
α4*NumC20_30 + α5*NumC30_45 + α6*NumC45_60
+ α7*NumC>60 + α8*Nocc
Where α1-α7 denotes the coefficient vector corresponding to
various impact factors. The variable I denotes the Income of
each household, NumC0-10 denotes how many occupants of
ages 0-10 are in each household, NumC10-20 denotes how
many occupants of ages 10-20 , NumC20-30 denotes how
many occupants of ages 20-30 are in each household,
NumC30-45 denotes how many occupants of ages 30-45,
NumC45-60 denotes how many occupants of ages 45-60,
NumC>60 denotes how many occupants of ages more than
60 and NumOcc denotes the number of occupants in each
household[5].
These equations are represented in statistical models in the
next section.
V. MODELLING AND ANALYSIS
For creation of statistical models, the mathematical
expression consisting various factors linking both
consumption and consumers’ behaviour is considered.
The expression is suitable for Linear Regression Models[7].
In this paper, we observe that the physical measure of
consumption is the electric bill received by the individual.
So the response of the particular system will be nothing but
the electricity bill. We perform the regression on every
individaul paramterer on the above equation i.e. Ai,Bi,Di.
Here we show the regression modelling of Ai which
depends on the appliances like AC,Washing Machine etc. in
MINITAB. To perform the regression in Minitab, required
response as stated above that the physical measure of
observing behaviour is by means of electric bill so the
response in this case responsde will be Electric bill and in
continious predictors we have number of all the appliance
sued like fan, lights, Air conditioners etc stated in the above
section as they are the most significance in this paper and in
the place of categorial predictiors we put the various other
important factors that cause effects on the above factors like
Income group, number of occupants. And the regression plot
observed is shown below
Figure 2:- Different statistical regression models based on
household appliances effect
From the regression plot observed we get the uneven
variation in plot due to the variation of response received
and we get the values γ for the various different responses.
Similarly we can calculate the values of α,β by performing
regression for the different factors taken into consideration
for them respectively. The error function ‘e’ represents
deviations in electric consumption due to various irregular
factors like Festivals, Festive rituals etc. which are of very
short duration of time span like 2-3 days or a week
maximum, they have less significane but cause deviation,
hence it is considered in the above study.
VI. CONCLUSION
The ultimate aim of any energy distributor is to gain profit
but also to ensure meeting load demands of a consumer. For
this, it is essential that both, the distributor & consumer have
good knowledge about various determinants that affect the
electricity consumption. Hence, this paper makes an effort
to understand what factors contribute towards the
determinants. First, we made a discussion on the various
factors in general and how they affect consumption. Then,
by means of conducted survey and collected database,
mapping of various models by means of statistical tools like
Minitab is performed. Finally, by observing the models, we
hope to share the necessary information which would help
to make the consumption determinant as best as possible &
also make the nation, a very efficient energy consumer by
spreading awareness about avoiding any amount of
unnecessary electric consumption.
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Economic factors affecting Individual Household Energy
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Demand Pattern - a field study, pp. 1-5
[3] Matam Manjunath, Prashant Singh, Abhilash Mandal, Gaurav Singh
Parihar 2013. “Consumer Behaviour towards Electricity- a field
study. 4th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research
2013”, ICAER 2013, page no. 543-546
[4] Pragyan Dash, “Consumption Pattern Of Electricity In Rural And
Urban Areas: A Case Study Of Rourkela, Sundargargh District Of
Odisha”
[5] H. Fana, I.F. MacGillb, A.B. Sproula, ” Statistical analysis of driving
factors of residential energy demand in the greater Sydney region,
Australia”
[6] World bank ,“Residential Consumption Of Electricity In India
,Documentation of data and methodology”, July 2008
[7] Vincenzo Bianco, Oronzio Manca*, Sergio Nardini,“Electricity
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[8] Giorgio Garau , Patrizio Lecca , Giovanni Mandras , “The impact of
population ageing on energy use: Evidence from Italy”, 2013,pg.979-
978
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