Climate – Electricity usage versus price

December 2, 2015 – A high school senior at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has published research showing that, while it’s just part of a complex story, higher electricity costs alone cannot be counted on to reduce demand for electricity and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The paper, published in “Sustainability,” reports that while a higher price of electricity caused consumers in Los Angeles to use less electricity, use in Chicago and New York was unaffected. “Although the initial assumption was that a higher average electricity price would decrease total energy consumption, only the results from the Los Angeles case support this assumption,” said lead author and ORNL intern Katherine Fu of Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tenn. Electricity costs were just part of the equation as the researchers also examined population trends, heat waves and the demands of energy consumption in cities. Authors noted that this finding has implications for policymakers as they consider mitigation strategies.