Electricity consumption of network-connected devices in the residential sector in Germany

Digitalization in the residential sector is growing rapidly with the introduction of more smart devices and the development of the Internet of Things. To investigate the electricity consumption of household appliances from increasing network-connected devices, a bottom-up modelling approach is used. The FORECAST-Residential model by Fraunhofer ISI was developed to calculate the residential energy consumption based on of the Bass model in product growth and consumer purchases. The model is extended in this study to calculate upstream energy use, defined as the energy required by data centres and access network efficiency in transferring data. The electricity consumption of network-connected devices themselves is also extended in the model by distinguishing devices connected to the internet and determining the duration of their connected usage. The consumption of different operation states is investigated by further separating operation and standby usage into conventional and network-connected usage. To determine the influence of different variables on the future development of energy consumption due to network-connected devices, several exploratory scenarios are simulated, covering policymaking, smart device purchases, user behaviour, and data centre efficiencies. The results show that the electricity consumption of devices can be strongly influenced by policies such as the European eco-design directive for household appliances. The conventional operation and network-connected standby consumption are the states with highest electricity consumption, consuming 73% and 17% of electricity in the year 2035 respectively. The other two investigated states: conventional standby and network-connected active consumed 6% and 4% respectively. Network-connected standby consumption is revealed to be the second most energy consumption mode due to standby mode of increasing smart devices labelled as being connected to the internet while on standby. Overall, the results indicate that the additional energy demand of network-connected devices and their upstream energy demand is relatively low. This reveals a large potential for smart devices to assist in achieving Germany's climate-neutrality target in the energy transition.