Building energy consumption factors: a literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

The Sri Lankan energy supply system faces several major strategic challenges due to high annual electricity demand growth rate and hence it is required to double the electricity generation capacity in every ten years. Ministry of Power and Energy predicted regular power cuts in the foreseeable future due to lack of rainfall within the hydro-catchments areas. In the coming years, oil price hikes will have a great impact on the operation of thermal power plants. Sri Lanka has now become the highest electricity bill spender in Asia and the status of energy poverty seems rather alarming. Sri Lankan energy statistics confirm that the building sector has contributed heavily on the energy, exceeding the industrial and transportation sectors. Occupant behaviour toward energy consumption have a significant impact on energy poverty and the initiation of large scale development projects after the three decades conflict pave the way to energy poverty to step up. In order to alleviate energy poverty, it is important to investigate the factors influencing the building energy consumption and their impact on power crisis. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review the factors affecting building energy consumption. A comprehensive literature review and a desk study of Sri Lankan energy reports were used out to investigate the power crisis in Sri Lanka and the factors influencing building energy consumption. Five factors and 36 sub factors identified from the literature review will be used to identify critical factors affecting building energy consumption during the next phase of the study.