Anticipated Actions to Reduce Energy Shortages in the Residential Sector

Abstract

This study investigates the electric energy shortages impact upon the residential sector in Riyadh city, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) resulting from severe power outages. The results reveal the extent of hardship and high costs the residential will suffer and endure. These outages occur and extend for longer durations. To mitigate these consequences, a method is suggested known as “willingness-to-pay” to seek the ability and willingness of consumers to pay to avert these power outages and energy shortages. Two approaches have been developed and utilized. The first one is based on a consumer survey to estimate his perceived costs. Outages occur in specific periods and last for longer durations. The second approach focussed on developing a mathematical model to complement the survey approach as this model can decrease the size of the problem complexity associated with consumer lack of experience in evaluating and assessing the worth of service reliability and quality.