Pepco Maryland In-Home Display Pilot Analysis
Prepared for Pepco
The Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) began deploying its in-home display (IHD) pilot program in the Fall of 2014 in its Pepco Maryland service territory. Approximately 300 Pepco residential customers received an IHD device. The IHDs display real time hourly energy usage, estimated monthly billing information based on instantaneous usage amounts, and information on how to conserve energy.
This study compares consumption of the treatment group, which received IHDs, with a control group, which did not receive IHDs, before and after the IHDs were deployed. More specifically, a regression analysis using a difference-in-differences methodology was conducted to compare the usage levels of the treatment and control group customers and determine whether the implementation of IHDs had any impact on customer usage. The analysis accounts for exogenous factors such as weather, calendar impacts, and other utility conservation programs which would have also affected customer usage. The study also surveyed treatment customers at the beginning and end of the pilot to gauge their degree of interaction with the IHD devices. Additionally, surveys and market research around customer preferences were undertaken by Opinion Dynamics and are summarized in this report.