Segmentation analysis of residential water-electricity demand for customized demand-side management programs

With increasing water and energy use in the residential sector, due to population growth, urbanization, and climate change, demand-side management (DSM) is essential to complement supply-side interventions to meet future demands and reduce costs. This paper explores how customer segmentation analysis can support customized water and electricity DSM. We contribute a three-phase customer segmentation analysis of over 1000 residential accounts in the Los Angeles County (Southern California) to explore the heterogeneity of residential water-electricity demand profiles and provide insights for coordinated water-energy DSM. Results show that, on the one hand, daily water and electricity consumption are correlated, thus groups of high consumers can be targeted with coordinated water-electricity DSM interventions. On the other hand, the absence of a relevant causal nexus between water and electricity daily load shapes suggests that DSM actions for water should be differentiated from those for electricity. Finally, both objective (e.g., presence of swimming pool) and subjective psychographic features (e.g., conservation attitude) are found to be relevant potential drivers of water-electricity demands. Based on these findings, we propose recommendations for designing a portfolio of mixed customized water-electricity DSM interventions to foster conservation or peak shifting objectives.