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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (4 results)

  • Article
Climate Change (2012)
One of the obvious modes of adaptation to higher temperatures due to climate change is the increased demand for cooling and decreased demand for heating in the built environment. California’s residential sector uses relatively little electricity for heating, and it is therefore expected that the demand for electricity will increase as households operate existing air conditioners more frequently, and in many regions, will install air conditioners where there currently are few. This paper provides reduced form estimates of changes in electricity consumption due to increased use of installed cooling equipment under a hotter climate. This study adds to the literature by incorporating the change in temperature responsiveness due to likely increases in air conditioner penetration under climate change using a two-stage method. It shows that taking into account these capital investments may lead to higher projections of electricity consumption. These increases in projected electricity consumption were mapped to the ZIP codes in the study data. The paper shows suggestive evidence that more Caucasian and wealthy ZIP codes are projected to experience relatively smaller increases in consumption, while ZIP codes with a higher share of Latino population are projected to experience larger increases in consumption
    Cover page: Hotspots of Climate-Driven Increases in Residential Electricity Demand: A Simulation Exercise Based on Household Level Billing Data for California
    • Article
    Climate Change (2012)
    This study simulates the impacts of higher temperatures resulting from anthropogenic climate change on residential electricity consumption for the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma). Flexible temperature response functions are estimated by climate zone, which allows for differential effects of days with different meant temperatures on households’ electricity consumption. The estimation uses a comprehensive household-level data set of billing data for Pacific Gas and Electric Company). The results suggest that the temperature response varies greatly across climate zones. Simulation results using three downscaled climate models suggest that for constant population the total demand for the households that were considered may increase by between 1 to 4 percent by the end of the century. The study further simulates the impacts of higher electricity prices and different scenarios of population growth.
      Cover page: Impacts of Climate Change on San Francisco Bay Area Residential Electricity Consumption: Evidence from Billing Data
      • Thesis
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2010)

      Part I is a joint paper with Maximilian Auffhammer. The study simulates the impacts of higher temperatures resulting from anthropogenic climate change on residential electricity consumption for California. Flexible temperature response functions are estimated by climate zone, which allow for differential effects of days in different temperature bins on households' electricity consumption. The estimation uses a comprehensive household level dataset of billing data for California's three investor-owned utilities (Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison). The results suggest that the temperature response varies greatly across climate zones. Simulation results using a downscaled version of the National Center for Atmospheric Research global circulation model suggest that holding population constant, total consumption for the households considered may increase by up to 55% by the end of the century.

      Part II is a joint work with Maximilian Auffhammer and Alan Sanstad. We study the impacts of state level residential building codes on per capita residential electricity consumption. We construct a timeline of when individual states first implemented residential building codes. Using panel data for 48 US states from 1970-2006, we exploit the temporal and spatial variation of building code implementation and issuance of building permits to identify the effect of the regulation on residential electricity consumption. Controlling for the effect of prices, income, and weather, we show that states that adopted building codes followed by a significant amount of new construction have experienced detectable decreases in per capita residential electricity consumption - ranging from 3-5% in the year 2006. Allowing for heterogeneity in enforcement and code stringency results in larger estimated effects.

      In the last part, I estimate the impact of ground level ozone on corn and soybean yields using nation-wide county-level data and ozone measures for the U.S. during 1990-2006. The implementation of the NOx Budget Trading Program (NBP) aiming to reduce NOx and thus ozone during the growing season is used as an instrument to control for endogeneity in the yield regression. The estimated elasticites of soybean and corn yield with respect to seasonal mean ozone concentrations are -0.60 and -0.57 respectively. The estimated elasticities of crop yield with respect to maximum ozone concentrations are higher suggesting a nonlinear relationship. A back of the envelope calculation shows that soybeans and corn loss from a one standard deviation increase in mean ozone during growing season is about $5 billion dollars. The NBP program reduces the value of crop losses by 2.19 billion for soybeans and 3.2 billion dollars corn during 2003 to 2007.

        Cover page: Essays on the Impact of Climate Change and Building Codes on Energy Consumption and the Impact of Ozone on Crop Yield
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2022)
          Cover page: Impacts of Climate Change on Residential Electricity Consumption: Evidence from Billing Data
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