The Residential Sector's Demand for Energy. ESRI Research Bulletin 2016/3/2

Curtis, John and Stanley, Brian (2016) The Residential Sector's Demand for Energy. ESRI Research Bulletin 2016/3/2. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Ireland and other EU member states face onerous climate and energy efficiency policy targets. As the residential sector represents 25% of final energy consumption in Ireland, what happens within the residential sector will play an important part in determining whether Ireland’s policy targets are achieved. Improvements in energy efficiency performance, reduced fossil energy use, and switching to less carbon intensive fuels will contribute to achieving policy targets. Price mechanisms, such as carbon taxes, are one policy option available to policymakers to encourage households to change their energy consumption patterns. This research paper examines historical data on the residential sector’s energy consumption to gauge how responsive households are to changes in energy prices, which should inform the development of future policy initiatives. The paper estimated an energy demand system for the residential sector for four fuel categories: electricity, gas, oil (incl. kerosene, diesel, LPG and petroleum coke) and solid fuels (incl. sod peat, peat briquettes and coal) and uses data from the period 1970 to 2013.

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