Consumer adoption of technologies for Net Zero emissions

This project will explore how potential consumer challenges to achieving Net Zero emissions might be overcome. In particular, it will identify and test scenarios for accelerating consumer adoption of three technologies key to reducing Australia’s emissions. It will also examine how consumers would respond to potential solutions for integrating these technologies into the National Electricity Market.

Technologies critical to achieving Net Zero emissions (electric vehicles, smart chargers, electrification of gas appliances, home battery storage) face several potential roadblocks.

First, consumer adoption of these technologies will need to accelerate significantly if Australia is to achieve its Net Zero targets. Second, engineering solutions for integrating these technologies into the National Electricity Market will need to be sensitive to consumer perceptions.

Participants

• Centre for New Energy Technologies
• Deakin University

Project background

Australia’s path to Net Zero emissions requires rapid consumer adoption of several critical technologies, including:

• Electric vehicles / smart chargers
• Electrification of gas appliances
• Home battery storage

Two key consumer issues present potential roadblocks to this adoption:

1. Australian consumers will need to adopt the three focal technologies (electric vehicles / smart chargers, electrification of gas appliances for heating and cooling, and battery storage) at rates of adoption that would be among the fastest in history. Motivating this rapid adoption will consequently require a shift to the status quo, with changes to the value propositions for, and societal perceptions of, these technologies alongside changes to supporting policy.
2. The rapid adoption of the focal technologies will fundamentally transform Australia’s National Electricity Market. For example, electric vehicles / smart chargers and the electrification of gas appliances will change when electricity is consumed (and by how much), while home battery storage will require orchestration to ensure that sufficient power is available across the National Electricity Market to support these technologies when intermittent sources of renewable energy are not available. While engineering solutions to these challenges can be identified, these solutions may not always be considered positively by consumers, which would serve only to hinder the broader adoption of those technologies and efficient and effective network operations.

This project consequently seeks to explore solutions to these potential consumer roadblocks. Specifically, this project will:

• Identify different scenarios for accelerating consumer adoption of the focal technologies.
• Examine consumer responses to proposals for solving the engineering challenges of integrating the focal technologies into the National Electricity Market.

In so doing, the project will inform future iterations of Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) Integrated System Plan within Victoria. This will also inform potential policy and government initiatives to drive the adoption of aforementioned technologies.

Project objectives

• Objective 1: Identify and test different scenarios for accelerating the adoption of three focal technologies: electric vehicles / smart chargers, electrification of gas appliances, and battery storage.
• Objective 2: Examine how consumers would respond to potential solutions for the largescale integration of the three focal technologies (electric vehicles / smart chargers; electrification of gas appliances; battery storage) into the National Electricity Market through policy and regulatory incentives.
• Objective 3: Determine whether consumer perceptions to the scenarios (Objective 1) and solutions (Objective 2) being tested vary as a function of different technology ownership profiles and customer segments as they relate to policy acceptance.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!