Daily 60-minute interval electricity use patterns and their association with household socio-demographics

Australia leads the world in rooftop solar photovoltaic systems. We analyse 3,300,695 days of actual household electricity use in Queensland, Australia, available in 5-minute intervals to identify five distinctly different household electricity consumption patterns. We then assign 366,439,750 days of electricity use of 1,097,125 households in Queensland, Australia, to those prototypical patterns to identify household market segments with distinct electricity use patterns and household characteristics. Segment profiles show that the benefits of rooftop photovoltaics are currently asymmetrically accessible to the Australian population in Queensland. Households with photovoltaic systems typically live in their own house, report a high education and income level, whereas households without photovoltaics who have the most consistent electricity use pattern across the day and use most electricity from the grid are more likely to rent, live in an apartment and report lower income and education levels. Regulatory modifications can make cost cost-saving benefits of rooftop solar systems available to a much wider section of the Australian community in Queensland, while also contributing to carbon emissions reduction via an increase in renewable energy.