Benefits from Electricity Quality Improvements: Evidence from a Smart Meter Experiment

• Development Workshop
• Environmental and Energy Economics Workshop

Date and Location

Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 3:40 PM - 5:00 PM
ARE Conference Room, 2102 Social Sciences and Humanities

Abstract

With hundreds of millions of households depending on grid connections that pro-
vide low quality and unreliable electricity services, this poor quality is considered
a barrier to development. In the Kyrgyz Republic, we investigate the impacts of and
residential consumer response to electricity quality improvements through a random-
ized installation of smart meters – a technology that utilities can install to improve
electricity service quality. Service quality improvements led to increased billed elec-
tricity consumption during peak months. Residential consumers responded by in-
creasing expenditures on household appliances and investing in energy efficiency.