The Energy Strategy 2050 requires a rethink in the way we interact with energy. In order to change the way electricity is used in households, smart meters are needed to provide information about energy consumption and raise awareness. Over the next three years, CLEMAP will be conducting the "Social Power Plus" research project with selected partners on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). The aim of the project is to achieve a sustainable change in the energy behavior of participating households.
According to the Swiss Energy Foundation (SES), Swiss buildings account for 45% of the country's energy consumption and cause almost a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. The potential for energy and emission savings in this sector is correspondingly high, but the hurdles are significant. Social Power Plus aims to reduce these figures by involving users in the process. The aim of the project is to motivate participating households to save energy by means of tools, targets, and game mechanisms, and to identify methods that can be used to achieve a sustainable change in their energy behavior. This sustainable change is to be achieved through learning activities for the participating households, by continuously raising their awareness of their energy consumption in a playful way during the project period. The partners involved hope that the savings opportunities learned will continue to be implemented even after Social Power Plus has ended. The project will run for three years and started in August 2020. It is funded by the SFOE and the participating energy suppliers.
The partners involved include CLEMAP, two universities, and utility companies. While the two universities, ZHAW and SUPSI, are participating in the research with various institutes, the energy suppliers EKS, Stadtwerke Winterthur, and TB Wil are identifying the participating households. CLEMAP is involved energy data analytics project as a technology partner for sound energy data analytics and, with its IoT energy platform, forms the interface between utility companies and households. The measured energy data, which comes partly from the existing smart meter infrastructure and partly from installed CLEMAP One devices, is collected and evaluated by CLEMAP and forwarded to the Social Power Game app created by SUPSI for visualization. This app informs participating households about their consumption and motivates them to continuously reduce their consumption with the help of gamification approaches.
Further information can be found at:
http://www.socialpower.ch/index.php/home-de/