Analyzing Residential Electricity Consumption Patterns Based on Consumer’s Segmentation

The identification of energy consumption patterns contributes for the tailoring of energy efficiency solutions. This paper contributes to this issue by addressing the characterization of electricity consumption data with 15 min sampling of twenty two households, in Lisbon. The consumers have been segmented according to: social class, contracted power, number of rooms, family size and type of tariff (flat or dual prices). Social class has been estimated according to education and income. The results show that consumption behavior has a stronger association with inner values rather than the habitation characterization. In fact, families who have chosen non-flat tariff consume less electricity than remaining ones. Such a choice should be a consequence of a higher energy (and cost) consciousness associated to the choice of a dual-tariff and a consequent decrease of electricity consumption. Social class can be a reflection of income but, more than that, a reflection of education, knowledge (also energyrelated knowledge), values and amount and performance of the existing appliances. For this reason, such factors should be analyzed more intensively by crossing consumption to occupancy and equipment efficiency, as well as socioeconomic characterization, resourcing to social sciences expertize. With the proper consumers’ characterization, the design of energy efficiency solutions should be more effective.