Analysing utility-based direct load control programmes for heat pumps and electric vehicles considering customer segmentation

Utility controlled heat pumps and electric vehicles via Direct Load Control (DLC) programmes could potentially be a solution for tackling challenges in the distribution networks by balancing intermittent renewable electricity sources. However, in many countries, DLC programmes do not have satisfactory enrolment rates. This paper investigates acceptance and preferences of DLC programmes for heat pumps and electric vehicles (EV) offered by a local Distribution System Operator (DSO), using a discrete choice experiment on a sample of 556 respondents residing in Switzerland. We first found that the acceptance ranged between 33% and 71% in different socio-economic groups. Secondly, multinomial logit results showed that financial incentives were the most preferred attribute for heat pumps, whereas it was the overriding option for the EV DLC programme. Finally, we explored the source of heterogeneity in preferences among different socio-economic groups with a latent class model. Preferences are found to differ between three classes, different gender and employment groups tend to be sensitive to different attributes of the DLC programmes. We draw attention to attributes of the utility based DLC programmes and provide policy recommendations to successfully address the diverse household preferences when deploying DLC programmes.