Determinants of Electricity Consumption in Private Households in Germany. Analysis of the German Sample Survey on Income and Expenditure.

Caroline Dotter , OTH Regensburg
Sonja Haug, Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg (OTH)
Miriam Vetter, OTH Regensburg

Private households are the third-largest consumers of electricity in Germany in 2021 (BDEW 2022). Moreover, the change to a carbon-neutral society is expected to permanently increase electricity prices. Since energy demand is inelastic in the short run, energy price rises are expected to disproportionately affect low-income households. Therefore, understanding determinants of electricity consumption is key to ensure the transition to a fair carbon-neutral society. A scoping review conducted by the authors identified socio-demographic, housing-related and appliance-specific factors determining the electricity consumption of private households. This paper analyses electricity expenditure of German private households utilizing the German Sample Survey on Income and Expenditure (EVS) 2018. German households spend about a third of net income on housing, energy, and maintenance. The determinants identified in the scoping review show weak to moderate correlations in bivariate analyses. The multivariate analyses shows the need for simultaneous analysis of sociodemographic and dwelling-related factors: Models only analyzing either aspect appear to overestimate the influence of sociodemographic determinants. Sociodemographic factors, household size, household income, and proportion of people present are identified as main determinants of electricity costs. Dwelling-related factors (such as living space or building age) have a weak but significant influence on electricity costs. Moreover, the geographic location of the households has an influence on electricity costs for the example of Germany. This is due the fact electricity network fees vary strongly across locations and make up about a quarter of electricity cost.

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 Presented in Session P109. Carbon Emissions and Environmental Policies