Questionnaire Development 131 

4.2.1 Introduction

In devising the questions included in our questionnaire we benefited from previous questionnaires in the literature used in determining residential electricity customers’ outage costs as well as other WTP for service improvement studies: Wacker et al., 1983; Bose and Shukla, 2001; CIE, 2001; Korman,

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2002; Moeltner and Layton, 2002; KPMG, 2003; Hensher et al., 2005b; Layton and Moeltner, 2005; RIC, 2005; Carlsson and Martinsson, 2007; and Carlsson and Martinsson, 2008. We organised the questionnaire into five main sections (see Appendix 4.1): Current electricity service; preparatory actions (averting behaviour); WTP for an inverter system (a CVM question); WTP for improved electricity services (CE questions); and household characteristics.24

4.2.2 Current Electricity Service

4.2.2.1 Attitudes to the Electricity System

In the first section, we asked attitudinal questions regarding the current electricity service of the respondents. These questions are intended to reveal the respondents’ attitudes toward the electricity system overall, as well as load shedding, and tariff variations. In phrasing the attitudinal questions, to limit automatic acceptance, reduce inattention, and encourage respondent engagement, we mostly used interrogative scaling rather than the agreement-with-statement scaling (Falthzik and Jolson, 1974; Haley and Case, 1979; Wong et al., 2003; Swain et al., 2008). For example, instead of phrasing the first question in Section 1A of the questionnaire as “In general, the power supply provided by my electric power company is very poor,” and asking the respondents to state their opinion along a 5- point “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” Likert scale, we let the respondent finish the end of the statement “In general, the power supply provided by my electric power company is …” by choosing from a 5-point “very good” to “very poor” scale.

24 _{An inverter system provides reliable electricity supply by storing electricity in batteries when it is available from the} utility and converting the current from DC to AC during an outage.

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4.2.2.2 Reliability of Supply – Duration and Frequency of Interruptions as Perceived by Respondents

As perceived quality is found to have a positive impact on WTP more (Zeithaml et al., 1996), in addition to the attitudinal questions, we included questions on the duration and frequency of summer and winter interruptions (planned and unplanned) as perceived by the respondents. These data will be used in determining the respondents’ current service attribute levels in the CE analysis, and as explanatory variables in the CVM analysis. We also included questions to determine the current notification period as perceived by the respondents and their preferred notification method.

4.2.2.3 Household’s Electricity Usage

WTP for a reliable electricity supply among other things is expected to be related to the household’s dependence on electricity (Munasinghe, 1980). To determine the level of dependency on electricity we asked questions on the respondents’ housing type, size of house in square meters, their monthly electricity consumption (kWh), types of fuel used for space-heating, water-heating, and cooking. We also asked if there is someone at home most of the time, if any household members work from home and if their work at home depends on electricity. We then asked if there are any sickbed residents and whether they use electrical medical equipment at home. At the end of the first section of the questionnaire, we asked questions to find out the time of day when the outages have less impact on the household. Respondents are also asked to state whether frequent short interruptions are worse than one long interruption.

134 4.2.3 Preparatory Actions

The second section consisted of questions regarding what actions households take in preparation for the outages. The data from this section will be used in calculating households’ AE. Respondents are asked to choose from a list of actions their households take in preparation for the failures. The cost per hour of each action will be calculated using market data. The number of hours multiplied by the cost per hour will give us the total cost per year, and the sum of all cost items will give us total AE per year per household.

4.2.4 WTP for an Inverter System: CVM

In Section 3 of the questionnaire, we designed a CVM question where we defined a hypothetical inverter system and using a payment card (payment ladder) format asked the respondents’ WTP for the system in order to ensure a reliable power supply without any failures. To secure such a supply without any failures, they will pay their monthly electricity bill and the total monthly cost of the inverter system. Respondents are asked to put a tick next to the highest amount they are sure that they would pay and a cross next to the first amount that they are sure that they would not pay. If they chose not to go for the inverter system then in a follow up question they were asked to give their reasons for not choosing the system. The follow up question is intended to separate the protest responses from valid zero values.

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4.2.5 WTP for Improved Electricity Services: CE Method

Section 4 of the questionnaire relates to the CE part. After defining the five attributes and their levels, and showing an example of a choice set, respondents were shown the eight choice sets (one at a time) according to the version assigned for them.

4.2.6 Household Characteristics

Finally Section 5 of the questionnaire collected data on household characteristics. Apart from the service attributes, socio-demographic variables help explain the variation in WTP. We will be able to test whether people with certain socio-demographic characteristics (e.g. age, gender, work status, income level, geographic location, education level, etc.) have different WTP values. The demographic data will also be used in checking whether the sample used in our study is a good representation of the population from which it is drawn.