Determinants of the Willingness to Energy Monitoring by Residential Consumers: A Case Study in the City of Wroclaw in Poland

Abstract

This paper analyses attitudinal and socio-economic determinants of the householders’ willingness to monitor their energy consumption. Residential consumers can monitor their energy consumption by means of traditional (electricity bill) and modern tools (smart metering information platforms, SMP). Within this empirical study we test the effect of environmental attitudes, knowledge and perceived possibilities on consumers’ stages of readiness to adopt SMP based the stage model of self-regulated behavioral change (SSCB). Perceived possibilities to monitor energy consumption on a regular basis was found to be the predictor of adoption in every examined stage of readiness. General knowledge predicted adoption of the stage in which consumers declared willingness to learn know-how of using SMP. The results suggest that an effectiveness of educational campaigns may be restricted to only some consumers.