Millions of households, including night-shift workers, busy families, vulnerable and low-income customers, heat pump owners and those with home batteries, could be missing out on cheaper energy.
A report by Cornwall Insight says that smart tariffs aren’t designed around how people actually live. They suggest combining energy consumption data with user demographics to design a new type of time-of-use tariffs.
These tariffs offer cheaper electricity at certain times of day, yet they account for fewer than 3% of the domestic energy market as users tend to presume it won’t give them savings.
The report argues that tariffs shaped around “real routines and real needs” could allow people to see what they would actually save, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Dr Matthew Chadwick, Lead Research Analyst at Cornwall Insight: “By pairing consumption data with demographics, suppliers could build energy tariffs around how people actually live. If suppliers can use data in a smarter way, time-of-use tariffs could stop being a niche product for the few and become something every household, and the wider society, can benefit from.”
The report also discusses how better-tailored tariffs may also encourage more households to invest in low carbon technology in the first place, with examples such as charging a home battery from rooftop solar.
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