Min Long | Electric Power Research Institute
TITLEUnderstanding the “power” of end-users
ABSTRACTUtility end-users often run the last mile of energy solutions. The actual impact of an energy solution directly links to the customers’ choices of end-use technologies and their energy use behaviors in daily life. As a current trend, utility providers offer services and programs that engage customers to play a part in improving the grid capability and reliability in supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency. For example, the pricing structure of an electricity service plan may incentive the shift of energy use from peak hours to the hours when renewable energy resources kick in; technology-specific programs may encourage the adoption of energy efficient equipment and/or the maximization of the distributed energy resources value. This presentation will share a few snapshots of utility customer insights in recent quantitative or qualitative research.
BIOMinhua Long is a customer behavior researcher and data scientist at Electric Power Research Institute. She is interested in understanding and predicting the choice and usage behavior of utility customers. Before joining EPRI, she worked as a postdoc researcher at Stanford to explore market-based optimization solutions for sustainable design. She completed her PhD degree at Iowa State University where she enjoyed merging the fun of engineering design, computation and behavior science.
