Insights in environmental attitudes : economic and psychological methods for engaging electricity utility customers and electric vehicle drivers

• Main Author: Max Andrew Gamerman 1999-
• Other Authors: Háskólinn í Reykjavík
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Orkuvísindi; Meistaraprófsritgerðir; Umhverfismál; Viðhorf; Atferli; Hagfræði; Rafveitur; Neytendur; Rafbílar; Ökumenn; Sustainable energy; Environmental issues; Attitude (Psychology); Economics > Psychological aspects; Methodology; Electric utilities; Consumers; Electric vehicles; Drivers; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/44913

While Iceland is a unique case study with respect to energy resources, the island nation is no stranger to climate change. Worsening environmental conditions and a lack of development of new energy infrastructure has become an emerging issue in terms of grid management. Last winter, the Þorisvatn Reservoir was at its second lowest levels in recorded history (Lansvirkjun, 2022). Still, despite a growing need to expand and improve upon existing power infrastructure, there exists no significant movement for improvements (Talnaefni Orkustofnunar, 2022). Iceland’s plan to ban the import and sale of new non-electric vehicles by 2030 (Shafiei et. al., 2019) further exacerbates the complexity of the issue. Multiple simulations have already shown the country’s power system can’t accommodate the fast-approaching EV fleet both in terms of energy supply or structural capacity (Dillman et. al., 2021, & Ólafsson, 2021). Previous electro-mobility research has covered many related subjects, but there exists two gaps in the literature we aim to fill in with our research: dynamic pricing and behavioral economic methods to promote the shift of flexible points of electricity consumption to non-peak hours. Standard economic theory conflicts with respect to electricity in terms of utility maximization and price elasticity of demand (Green, 2005 & Upadhyay, 2020), thus, I aim to study how these rigid assumptions of utility maximization hold up in a real-world setting. Additionally, I examine various behavioral economic concepts and outline them in a “behavioral toolbox” for ease of application. Straumlind designed the Dynamic Pricing Program and upcoming website and mobile application based on my findings from the literature, however, due to budgetary constraints the company was only able to implement the Dynamic Pricing Project which offers an opt-in price discount of 34% to domestic Straumlind customers between the hours of 2-6 AM. From this, I found statistically significant relationships between hourly electricity ...