Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI
Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI

Project

NUDGE - NUDging consumers towards enerGy Efficiency through behavioural science

NUDGE is set up to analyse people’s behaviour, and design and test nudging interventions in five EU Member States in households, energy communities and schools.

In NUDGE, a mix of approaches are employed, including qualitative and quantitative research methods, stakeholder consultation as well as collection of pilot data. The methods will also include field experiments and surveys to assess the impact of an intervention. Most of the research and experimentation is also focused on the design of policies and the formulation of recommendations specific to each country.
 

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In an effort to meet the ambitious EU targets for increased energy efficiency and cope with the challenge of climate change, public authorities, Distributed System Operators (DSOs) and other stakeholders are actively investing towards improving energy efficiency. Much of this investment concerns digital infrastructure (e.g., smart meters) that enables energy consumers to monitor and manage their energy usage more actively and efficiently. However, the holy grail of “energy efficiency” demands drastic changes in the overall energy-related behaviour of consumers, from the way they use their heating and electric appliances, up to the way they cater for (structural) energy inefficiencies of their houses. Identifying interventions that could bring about changes in this behavior is a major challenge and all involved stakeholders have been investing significant effort and resources to better understand all those factors that determine the consumers’ behavior and the decisions they make about energy consumption matters.

 

 

The grand objective of the NUDGE project is to systematically assess and fully unleash the potential of behavioural interventions towards achieving higher energy efficiency, paving the way to the generalized use of such interventions as a worthy addition to the policy-making toolbox.
The main objectives are:

  • Tailor the design of behavioural interventions to individual psychological and contextual variables by leveraging the data collection capabilities of digital mediation platforms and data analytics.
  • Execute extensive field trials (pilots) that address multiple instances of consumer behavior, implementing different mixes of behaviour-based and traditional interventions even across participants of the same pilot.
  • Develop a systematic core and contextual research protocol to continuously measure the impact of the implemented behavioural interventions.
  • Consolidate the findings of pilots into recommendations towards policy makers and relevant stakeholders.

 

Duration

Autumn 2020 until autumn 2023

Client

European Commission/Horizon 2020

Partners

  • IEECP (BE, Coordinator)
  • DOMX (GR)
  • AUEB (GR)
  • INEGI (PT)
  • Fraunhofer ISI (DE)
  • ZEZ (HR)
  • MVV ENERGIE AG (DE), Beegy (3rd party linked to MVV)
  • IMEC (BE)9
  • SPRING-STOF (BE)
  • CITTADINANZATTIVA APS (IT)