Evolution of energy consumption by individuals in France in 2022

Hello Watt, energy advisor for individuals, publishes its barometer of the energy consumption of individuals: detailed consumption data from the Linky smart meters for electricity and Gazpar for gas of more than 100.000 users of the Hello Watt application, confirm the trend highlighted by RTE, and go even further:

• In November, a drop in electricity consumption of -28% compared to 2021 for users of the Hello Watt app. Before correcting for weather effects, RTE gives a drop in total electricity consumption of 19%(1). Hello Watt is able to study the same trend but for individuals only, and the figure rises to -28%. This is because having a good tool for monitoring and analyzing energy consumption leads to more energy savings(2), and users of the Hello app Watt are probably more sensitive to energy conservation than the rest of the population.
• The sharp drop in consumption is linked to heating: -57% in heating consumption between November 2022 and November 2021. Heating represents on average 2/3 of the energy consumption of a home, that's it that you have to work to significantly reduce your consumption. The Hello Watt app is the only app that allows you to determine the share of heating from the total consumption of the home and machine learning algorithms from its R&D program. Other supplier energy consumption monitoring apps only do a “statistical” and therefore approximate analysis of consumption by use (eg 60% of consumption is heating for homes).
• For gas, even more impressive figures: -33% in November and -60% in October on consumption compared to last year for individuals using the Hello Watt app. The Hello Watt barometer also complements RTE's data by offering an analysis for the second most used energy: gas. And for gas, the same trends are even more impressive, they are not only explained by changing habits but also by mild temperatures in October and November as for electricity consumption.

How did Hello Watt get these numbers and is the sample large enough? Thanks to the Hello Watt application, data from Linky and Gazpar are collected for hundreds of thousands of individuals. Enough to provide precise estimates now grouped together in a Consumption Barometer, available here: Discover the Hello Watt barometer of household energy consumption.

How to interpret these results ?

• Obviously, temperature differences represent the main factor of variation: the months of October and November 2022 were historically mild(3), which delayed the heating period. We can see it clearly on our barometers dedicated to consumption for heating only: the reduction is even more impressive. This detailed analysis is made possible thanks to our app which knows how to break down the total consumption, so we can determine the exact share of heating.
• But the impact of behavior should not be overlooked: whether it is suffered (inflation) or desired (sobriety), the decline "after correction of meteorological factors" is quite clear.

Will this reduction be sufficient to avoid cuts?

The risk of outages, reiterated by RTE on December 6, depends mainly on peaks in electricity demand. If temperatures drop sharply, the restart of nuclear power plants struggles to succeed, and the French do not postpone their electricity needs, this drop observed in October and November will then have little impact in January, where the risk of Ecowatt red alert will be the most important. And to allow the French to have their follow-up and Ecowatt alerts in the same place, these alerts have been integrated into the Hello Watt application!

(1) RTE weekly summary

(2) Adnane Kendel, Nathalie Lazaric. The diffusion of smart meters in France: A discussion of the empirical evidence and the implications for smart cities. Journal of Strategy and Management, 2015, 8 (3), pp.231-244. ffhalshs-01246427

(3) Temperatures in November 2022 were on average 3 degrees higher than in November 2021. For October, the difference is 4 degrees.