Analysing households’ responsiveness towards socio-economic determinants of residential electricity consumption in Singapore

The research of household electricity use is still relatively new for Singapore, where apart from some government surveys and sparingly available papers, not much has been done to understand the underlying socio-economic determinants that affect residents’ energy demand. Here, we seek to quantify price and income elasticities, as well as provide reasonable justification for price asymmetry in Singapore using a panel approach across dwelling types and geographical areas. We find that households do not react much to prices, and that price elasticities may decrease as income rises. There is also some evidence of price asymmetry, with surprising results putting responsiveness towards price decreases larger than price increases. This points towards similar behavioural patterns with the rebound effect for household energy efficiency, if found present in future studies. Our findings suggest that there will only be positive responses towards dynamic pricing and higher churn rates if more transparent information is provided on related cost savings, when households are exposed to retail choice in the electricity market after full retail competition is introduced in 2018. In addition, a large role will have to come from cultivating the young to engage in sustainable practices to achieve energy efficiency targets. •We determine socio-economic determinants for household electricity demand.•Panel Analysis suggest households respond less to income than prices.•There is evidence for price asymmetry, which is greater for price decreases.•Demand Response and Switching Behaviour will depend on more information outreach.