Australian residential utility customer behaviour - reacting to the new recessionary environment

Introduction

This presentation highlights the key findings from Datamonitor's 2009 household utility survey. It examines trends in switching, billing and payment preferences, green energy and highlights the key challenges and opportunities emerging from the recessionary environment.

Scope

• Understanding of the extent to which the recession has impacted the residential utility customer.
• Insight on the factors triggering the growth in switching.
• Analysis of changing green awareness levels amongst Australian household energy consumers.

Highlights

Only one-sixth of households were sufficiently engaged to want to track energy spend and would be expected to be actively engaged with time of use tariffs linked to smart metering.

The global financial crisis has had little impact on the majority of consumers' desires to reduce their energy spend, either through more actively reducing consumption or seeking out a cheaper supplier.

Nearly two thirds of respondents stated they had tried to reduce their energy costs in the past 12 months.

Reasons to Purchase

• Assess to what degree consumers are becoming more proactive in seeking out a new supplier.
• Analyse the impact of the recession on the green power market.
• Understand the nature of consumer willingness to pay a premium for green power.