Development of methodology for the assessment of changes in household electricity consumption and calculation of CO2 emissions

This study outlines a methodology for assessing changes in household electricity consumption and CO2 emissions. The method is proposed to analyse large datasets of residential electricity consumption in the case study of the first smart metering pilot project in Latvia. The goal of the project is to achieve a reduction of electricity consumption in households by 10%. In order to do so project aims to increase household user's awareness of smart technologies, as well as to promote households' involvement in energy efficiency measures. The proposed methodology is based on several steps, including: 1) baseline situation analysis; 2) normalisation of electricity consumption data; 3) identification of the factors affecting household electricity consumption; 4) an empirical analysis of households' electricity consumption using regression analysis; 5) assessment of changes in electricity consumption at the end of evaluation period and 6) calculation of CO2 emissions. Finally, the first results of the smart metering pilot project in nine-month period have been presented. The recommendations for policy development on promoting smart metering have been raised at the end of this paper.