Energy Policy, Vol.119, 51-58, 2018
An integrated analysis of households' electricity consumption in Israel
Recent decades have witnessed a growing interest in the conservation of electricity of the household sector as consumption rates grow constantly worldwide. To date, consumption based studies have either focused on households' overall use of electricity at the national or specific group level, or analyzed specific socio-spatial consumption shaping factors. Studies that followed the first approach can signal the magnitude of electricity consumption, analyze trends and explore the contribution of advancing various measures. Studies that followed the latter approach can be used as a base for advancing consumption behavioral changes based on specific circumstances. This manuscript integrates both approaches for the case of the state of Israel, it therefore allows examining the effect of different variables on electricity consumption of the entire population. The manuscript presents an analysis of electricity consumption of 30,000 households. By quantifying the overall use of electricity by households influenced by different socio-spatial shaping factors, the manuscript identifies the share of specific types of households and various lifestyles (e.g., young families, wealthy households) out of the overall national use of electricity. Such analysis can then support policy measures by aiming to the socio-spatial characteristics of specific types of households, which can contribute the most to advancing the overall national energy efficiency efforts and can also identify future scenarios of household electricity demand which can then be addressed in the future.