Not all electricity is created equal. Utilities prioritize getting power from the cheapest sources available. That means that, as use rises to what’s typically a mid-afternoon peak, utilities end up sourcing ever more expensive supplies of electricity. By the time we reach the use typical of a late afternoon during a heat wave, the utilities have to call in the most expensive forms of power around—typically, the oldest, least-efficient, and most-polluting plants.
So cutting down on energy use during these peak demand events is in a utility’s interests. And, since it’s an economic problem, a lot of the solutions have also been economic, like setting higher electricity rates during these times to encourage customers to cut back on use. But a new study suggests that something as simple as a gentle reminder to customers can have a noticeable effect, and stacking reminders can have as much of an impact as raising power prices by 70 percent.
Read full story here: Small Nudges Add Up To Big Electric Savings | Ars Technica
