Social Power

Social Power is an app designed to reduce household electricity consumption through connecting to a household’s smart meter.

The app is supported by electricity consumption data measured every fifteen minutes from the household’s smart meter. Users’ electricity usage and saving are recorded and visualized weekly, along with a comparison to their historical use and other households. Every week, a household would receive a performance evaluation as well as new electricity saving tips and challenges. Completing these activities will be rewarded with points, and when more households within the same team complete the tasks, they can earn extra points for the team. In the weekly feedback, both competitive and collaborative gamified structures are used, enabling comparisons between teams as well as within teams.

During the intervention using this app, electricity use of the participating households was significantly reduced compared with their historical consumption and the control groups. However, a study conducted one year later suggested that the electricity savings were not maintained after the intervention.

Wemyss, D., Cellina, F., Lobsiger-Kägi, E., De Luca, V., & Castri, R. (2019). Does it last? Long-term impacts of an app-based behavior change intervention on household electricity savings in Switzerland. Energy Research & Social Science, 47, 16-27.

Contribute to this article below