Measuring and Evaluating Time- and Energy-use Relationships (METER)

METER解决了一个基本的研究问题：“电力消费和家庭活动之间的时间关系是什么？".到目前为止，人们对这种关系仍然知之甚少。METER将通过使用适配的智能手机技术同时收集电力消耗数据和时间使用信息来解决这一差距。详细了解“电力用于什么”，特别是在高峰需求期间，对于解决新兴的系统平衡挑战和制定适当的政策框架和商业模式以实现低碳发电的成本效益整合非常重要。目前，电力供应是基于“预测和提供”的范式-只要我们可以预测在任何一个时间需要“多少”电力，大多数基于化石燃料的工厂的船队就可以预定交付。这一办法不需要对能源的最终用途有什么了解。对于核能、太阳能和风能等低碳能源，需求方可能需要更大的灵活性。当试图减少或改变消费时间时，了解由电力支持的最终使用活动变得更加重要。迄今为止，试图在电器层面测量电力使用的研究受到仪器成本和复杂性的限制。由于缺乏可靠的统计数据，英国在这一领域的研究一直处于世界领先地位。METER开发了一种新的方法，可以同时收集电力消耗和时间使用信息。由牛津大学的同事开发的智能手机技术将被部署，以1秒的分辨率测量用电量，并询问参与者他们在一天中的关键时刻所从事的活动。智能手机的使用使这一过程能够以前所未有的低成本进行，因此可以将2000多个家庭纳入研究。这一规模很重要，因为电力使用是高度多样化的，只有足够大的样本才能为研究人员和决策者提供具有统计意义的证据。同时收集时间使用和电力消耗可以提高时间使用研究的准确性，并为电力消耗的使用和时间及其与家庭活动的关系提供新的见解。METER开发的数据和分析工具将为电力使用的时间提供急需的见解，这可以支持未来广泛的研究重点。其中包括新出现的能源系统平衡挑战和更广泛的政策挑战，这些挑战依赖于关于能源使用、人口统计、生活方式及其随时间推移的转变之间关系的可靠统计信息。包括互动在线工具，以探索英国如何使用电力，以及公众可以做些什么来支持向低碳未来的过渡。

METER addresses a fundamental research question: "What is the temporal relationship between electricity consumption and household activities?". To date this relationship is still poorly understood. METER will address this gap by collecting electricity consumption data in parallel with time-use information using adapted smart phone technology.A detailed understanding of 'what electricity is used for', especially during peak demand periods, is important in addressing emerging system balancing challenges and to develop appropriate policy frameworks and business models leading to the cost effective integration of low-carbon generation. At present electricity is supplied based on a 'predict and provide' paradigm - so long as we can forecast 'how much' electricity is required at any one time, the fleet of mostly fossil fuel based plants can be scheduled to deliver. Little knowledge about the end-uses of energy has been required for this approach. With low carbon sources, such as nuclear, solar and wind, more flexibility may be required from the demand side. Understanding the end use activities supported by electricity becomes more important when seeking to reduce or shift the timing of consumption.Studies attempting to measure electricity use at the appliance level have so far been limited in their scale by the cost and complexity of instrumentation. The absence of statistically robust consumption data has been noted as limiting the UK's world leading research in this area.METER develops a new approach to collect electricity consumption in parallel with time-use information. Smart phone technology, developed by colleagues at Oxford, will be deployed to measure electricity consumption at 1 second resolution and ask participants about the activities they undertake at critical times of the day. The use of smart phones allows this process to be performed at unprecedentedly low costs, such that over 2000 households can be included in the study. This scale is important, because electricity uses are highly diverse and only a sufficiently large sample allows to develop statistically significant evidence for researchers and policy makers. The concurrent collection of time-use and electricity consumption can improve the accuracy of time-use research and provide new insights into the use and timing of electricity consumption and its relationship with household activities. The data and the analytical tools developed by METER will provide much needed insights into the timing of electricity uses, which can underpin a wide range of future research priorities. Among them are emerging energy system balancing challenges and broader policy challenges relying on statistically robust information about the relationship between energy use, demographics, lifestyles and their transitions over time.Findings and insights from METER trials will become publicly available as part of a public outreach campaign, including interactive online tools to explore how Britain uses its electricity and what the public can do to support the transition towards a lower carbon future.