EFFECT OF CONDITIONAL COOPERATION ON ENERGY SAVING: A MINI-REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction:
Social norms have influence on the human behaviour. This concept has been used in programs that provide regulatory information and expect changes in behaviour, mainly in the reduction of consumption.
Objective:
To critically review the theoretical approaches to social norms and their impact on energy saving, focussing on the Cuban context. The perspective for the application of social norms in other sceneries was also considered.
Materials and Methods:
In this section themes of interest as: energy conservation programs, boomerang effect, OPOWER program, as well as comparison of OPOWER in Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean scenarios were analysed. In energy-efficient context, there are evidences that if comparisons are made between neighbours about the contribution that each one makes to save energy, it can induce energy efficiency in the neighbourhood. Also the use of the conditional cooperation concept in other scenarios could be attractive.
Conclusions:
Programs based on the social norms can be an attractive option to use in greater number of public services because can induce changes in the behavior, based only on motivational cooperation without need to be related to the price. Energy sector in Cuba
could incorporate social comparison module to household energy report and expect the reduction of energy consumption.