Key findings
- 📈 BEIS estimates the smart meter roll-out will cause households to reduce electricity and gas consumption by 3% and 2.2% respectively. But it is important to continuously validate the magnitude of these savings. Our new guidance for energy suppliers lays out a blueprint for rigorous analysis. Tweet
- 💡 This guidance for energy suppliers on conducting energy consumption has some of our favourite econometrics tools – including coarsened exact matching and a simplified version of diff-in-diffs. Tweet
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) has developed guidance for energy suppliers on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). It specifies key considerations for carrying out energy consumption analysis, BIT’s recommended methodology, and alternative methodologies. Our intention is to provide suppliers and other organisations with an accessible, quality-assured method that can be tailored to their data and capacity.
This guidance focuses on suppliers’ identification of the impact of smart meters on customers’ energy consumption. Reduced energy consumption is a key anticipated benefit of the smart meter roll-out, and ongoing access to this evidence is valuable for helping the Smart Metering Implementation Programme (SMIP) monitor roll-out impacts.
However, the methodology we recommend may also be useful for analyses of other products, services, or interventions that energy suppliers offer customers where customers’ energy consumption is an outcome of interest.
