Behavioral and Structural Drivers of Energy Demand Flexibility

The climate crisis and ambitious national greenhouse gas reduction targets are driving a profound transformation of the energy system. On the supply side, renewable electricity generation is expanding. At the same time, heating, mobility, and industrial processes are increasingly electrified on the demand side. While essential for decarbonization, these developments increase the challenges of balancing supply and demand in a weather-dependent electricity system. This shift contributes to a setting in which demand increasingly follows supply, thereby elevating the importance of demand-side flexibility.

The residential and industrial sectors account for 71 % of electricity demand in Germany and hold considerable potential for demand-side flexibility. Whether this potential is realized, however, depends critically on the acceptability of flexibility measures and the preferences and constraints of the affected actors. Despite the growing relevance of demand-side flexibility, empirical evidence on consumer acceptance, behavior, and structural constraints remains limited.
This thesis examines the behavioral and structural drivers of demand-side flexibility from a consumer and decision-maker perspective across the residential and industrial sectors and combines four studies on, (i) incentivized residential energy-saving and flexibility behavior in a real-world living-lab setting, (ii) household preferences for incentivized load shedding via controlled electricity interruptions, (iii) perceived barriers and enablers of industrial process flexibility based on expert interviews, and (iv) the theoretical future flexibility potential of energy-intensive industrial processes.
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The results identify a range of behavioral and structural drivers that shape the acceptability of and engagement with demand-side flexibility across sectors. In the residential sector, flexible behavior can be activated under complex incentive schemes, and households are willing to accept controlled electricity interruptions when appropriate compensation, transparency regarding frequency and duration, and advance notice are provided. However, such incentive schemes are not universally attractive and must be tailored to diverse consumer preferences. In the industrial sector, compensation and profitability concerns likewise emerge as central drivers, while acceptability is additionally shaped by organizational routines, internal communication, technological constraints, and regulatory conditions. Key enablers include well-designed program types, sufficient advance notice, and supportive regulatory frameworks. Modeling results indicate that industrial decarbonization could unlock load reduction potentials amounting to two-thirds of today’s European pumped hydro storage capacity, with particularly high contributions from ammonia electrolysis, electric arc furnaces, and food processing technologies. Overall, the findings confirm that demand-side flexibility cannot be mobilized through uniform policy instruments. Instead, effective flexibility schemes should account for heterogeneous preferences and sector-specific constraints.