Daniel Sloot

Daniel Sloot is a doctoral candidate and a research associate at the Institute for Industrial Production (IIP) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). He holds an M.Sc. degree in social psychology and is interested in the behavioral and social aspects of the sustainable energy transition.

In his research at the KIT, he investigates behavioral and economic aspects of decentralized energy systems. As part of the “flexQgrid” project, this research addresses the need for more demand-side flexibility in local electricity grids. The energy transition leads to an increasing share of renewable energy production, and prosumers contribute to this decentralization with their own photovoltaic production. At the same time, new energy-intensive appliances such as heat pumps and electric cars present new challenges for sustainable energy provision. To avoid potential grid overloads, energy consumers can play an important part in tackling these challenges by using electricity flexibly at times of high supply or demand. In order to assess consumers’ willingness and preferences for providing flexibility in their energy use, a choice experiment will be conducted among a representative sample of private households. The aim is to derive insights on how flexibility programs can be effectively designed and how participation of consumers in these programs can be incentivized successfully.