Finding the creatures of habit; Clustering households based on their flexibility in using electricity

Changes in the UK electricity market, particularly with the roll out of smart meters, will provide greatly increased opportunities for initiatives intended to change households’ electricity usage patterns for the benefit of the overall system. Users show differences in their regular behaviours and clustering households into similar groupings based on this variability provides for efficient targeting of initiatives. Those people who are stuck into a regular pattern of activity may be the least receptive to an initiative to change behaviour. A sample of 180 households from the UK are clustered into four groups as an initial test of the concept and useful, actionable groupings are found.