A green, connected future Britain: Would you share your energy to protect your local hospital during an energy crisis?

Future renewable energy-reliant smart grids may not be able to guarantee supply to meet demand. This could result in loss of power to essential services, such as hospitals. Households with electric vehicles and battery storage may collectively provide an emergency energy resource in this context. This study examined how householders might behave if asked to share their stored energy. Specifically, we examined if willingness to share is influenced by: level of monetary incentives relative to donation; amount of power householders have stored; urban or rural location. Householders in England (n=1051) participated in 3 randomised online vignette-based experiments. Monetary incentive and resource scarcity were manipulated and their interaction with geographical location (urban/rural) and incentive framing (‘give’/’sell’) examined. The dependent variable was number of hours’ stored electric vehicle battery energy shared with a local hospital. Findings showed that householders shared equivalent hours of energy when asked to donate, sell at no loss, or at a profit. However, participants shared far less at a loss relative to all other conditions. In regard to stored energy available (1, 3 or 5 days’ energy) ~84% participants shared at least some energy and those with more supply gave more, though proportionately less. Urban vs. rural and give vs. sell conditions were non-significant. Findings suggest householders would donate energy to essential services as a part of energy crisis management, even if their own energy resource is scarce. Importantly, compensation is unnecessary, because covering costs or allowing profit is no more effective than asking for a donation.