Heterogeneity in German Residential Electricity Consumption: A quantile regression approach

Abstract

In the absence of sufficient coverage of metering data on the electricity consumption of individual devices, this paper estimates the contribution of individual appliances to overall household electricity consumption, drawing on the most recent wave of the German Residential Energy Consumption Survey (GRECS). Moving beyond the standard focus of estimating mean effects, we combine the conditional demand approach with quantile regression methods to capture the heterogeneity in electricity consumption rates of individual appliances. Our results indicate substantial differences in these rates, as well as the end-use shares across households originating from the opposite tails of the electricity consumption distribution. This outcome highlights the added value of applying quantile regression methods in estimating consumption rates of electric appliances and indicates some scope for realizing conservation potentials.