Classical energy planning models assume that consumers are rational, which is obviously rarely the case. This paper proposes an original method to take into account the consumer's real behavior in an energy model. This new hybrid model combines technical methods from operations research with behavioral approaches from social sciences and couples a classical energy model with a Share of Choice model

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Sustainable energy consumption is a research area of a large interest in last years. New energy-efficient lighting technologies exist, which can significantly reduce household electricity consumption, but their adoption has been slow. A considerable number of international studies show that sustainable development scenarios will be realistic if they involve the human behavior. The paper provides a solution to integrate consumer behavior with techno-economic energy issues, inside a complex energy model. This approach aims to reduce the error, from the demand side of the energy model. Consumer behavior in energy consumption is described by using specific attributes of energy technologies, namely virtual technologies. The GAMS/TIMES/VEDA energy modelling software tool has been used to integrate the techno-economic energy specific data and consumer behavior, in order to achieve the research purposes. A sociological survey about Romanians’ behavior in energy consumption has been conducted and its results have been integrated in the energy based model, in form of virtual technologies. This approach, known as “Social MARKAL”, allows the analyst to evaluate the possible contribution of information campaigns in changing lighting consumers’ behavior and effect of technology switch. The model is developed for the period 2010-2026, and is implemented by using GAMS/TIMES/VEDA software platform. The results presented this paper focuses on the household lighting technologies