A Scenario Based Analysis of Incentive Schemes to Promote the Social Acceptance of Smart Energy Home in China

Smart home energy technology (SHET) is an important category of smart home, a crucial component of smart city. Currently, the adoption rate of SHET in China is still at low level and there is also a deficiency of incentive policies for SHET promotion. With the objective to bridge the policy gap, so as to promote the social acceptance of smart home energy technology by urban residents of China, thereby building a smart living environment with energy efficiency, comfort, and convenience, this study has proposed two incentive schemes, including Price Subsidy and Time of Use pricing plan. By way of contingent valuation method and ordinal regression, respondent’s willingness to pay for SHET under each incentive scheme has been estimated and the influential factors of WTP also have been investigated. After the comparison between the scenarios of incentive scheme and business as usual, this study revealed that all the two schemes were effective, and the scheme of price subsidy appeared to be the strongest. The different incentive schemes would be influenced by various factors significantly, including the demographic, property ownership and the behavioral related.