IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aen/journl/ej38-5-mays.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization of Time-Varying Electricity Rates

Author

Listed:
  • Jacob Mays
  • Diego Klabjan

Abstract

Current consensus holds that 1) passing through wholesale electricity clearing prices to end-use consumers will produce maximal efficiency gains and 2) simpler forms of time-varying retail rates will capture only a small portion of potential benefits. We show that neither holds in the presence of capacity costs typical in U.S. wholesale markets. Using an optimization model describing the short-term problem faced by an electricity retailer, we find hourly prices that optimally pass through capacity costs. We estimate benefits for a retailer using these prices as well as optimal configurations of a number of time-varying rate structures. Testing a range of realistic assumptions, we find that in the absence of a well-designed demand charge, passing through clearing prices may miss up to three quarters of the benefits possible from optimal hourly prices. By contrast, a simpler critical peak pricing structure enables retailers to achieve approximately two-thirds of the total possible benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacob Mays & Diego Klabjan, 2017. "Optimization of Time-Varying Electricity Rates," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).
    • Handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej38-5-mays
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/ejarticle.aspx?id=2978
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to IAEE members and subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathleen Spees & Lester Lave, 2008. "Impacts of Responsive Load in PJM: Load Shifting and Real Time Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 101-122.
    2. Severin Borenstein & Stephen Holland, 2005. "On the Efficiency of Competitive Electricity Markets with Time-Invariant Retail Prices," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(3), pages 469-493, Autumn.
    3. Joseph Bowring, 2013. "Capacity Markets in PJM," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    4. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur, 2006. "The Short-Run Effects of Time-Varying Prices in Competitive Electricity Markets," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 127-156.
    5. Joskow, Paul L., 2008. "Capacity payments in imperfect electricity markets: Need and design," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 159-170, September.
    6. Severin Borenstein, 2005. "The Long-Run Efficiency of Real-Time Electricity Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 93-116.
    7. AfDB AfDB, . "Annual Report 2012," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 461.
    8. Peter Cramton & Steven Stoft, 2006. "The Convergence of Market Designs for Adequate Generating Capacity," Papers of Peter Cramton 06mdfra, University of Maryland, Department of Economics - Peter Cramton, revised 2006.
    9. Crew, Michael A & Fernando, Chitru S & Kleindorfer, Paul R, 1995. "The Theory of Peak-Load Pricing: A Survey," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 215-248, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meyabadi, A. Fattahi & Deihimi, M.H., 2017. "A review of demand-side management: Reconsidering theoretical framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 367-379.
    2. Spiller, Elisheba & Esparza, Ricardo & Mohlin, Kristina & Tapia-Ahumada, Karen & Ünel, Burçin, 2023. "The role of electricity tariff design in distributed energy resource deployment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Lu-Miao Li, Peng Zhou, and Wen Wen, 2023. "Distributed Renewable Energy Investment: The Effect of Time-of-Use Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jacob Mays & Diego Klabjan, 2017. "Optimization of Time-Varying Electricity Rates," The Energy Journal, , vol. 38(5), pages 67-92, September.
    2. Anette Boom & Sebastian Schwenen, 2021. "Is real-time pricing smart for consumers?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 193-213, December.
    3. Carlo Fezzi & Derek Bunn, 2010. "Structural Analysis of Electricity Demand and Supply Interactions," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(6), pages 827-856, December.
    4. Shira Horowitz & Lester Lave, 2014. "Equity in Residential Electricity Pricing," The Energy Journal, , vol. 35(2), pages 1-24, April.
    5. Boom, Anette & Schwenen, Sebastian, 2012. "Real-time Pricing in Power Markets: Who Gains?," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 66062, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Schmitt, Stephan & Wissner, Matthias, 2016. "Kapazitätsmechanismen – Internationale Erfahrungen," WIK Discussion Papers 406, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    7. Christian Gambardella & Michael Pahle & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2016. "Do Benefits from Dynamic Tariffing Rise? Welfare Effects of Real-Time Pricing under Carbon-Tax-Induced Variable Renewable Energy Supply," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1621, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Mattias Vesterberg and Chandra Kiran B. Krishnamurthy, 2016. "Residential End-use Electricity Demand: Implications for Real Time Pricing in Sweden," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    9. Bhagwat, Pradyumna C. & de Vries, Laurens J. & Hobbs, Benjamin F., 2016. "Expert survey on capacity markets in the US: Lessons for the EU," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 11-17.
    10. Greening, Lorna A., 2010. "Demand response resources: Who is responsible for implementation in a deregulated market?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1518-1525.
    11. Thomas-Olivier Leautier, 2014. "Is Mandating "Smart Meters" Smart?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    12. Freier, Julia & von Loessl, Victor, 2022. "Dynamic electricity tariffs: Designing reasonable pricing schemes for private households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    13. Krishnamurthy, Chandra Kiran B. & Vesterberg, Mattias & Böök, Herman & Lindfors, Anders V. & Svento, Rauli, 2018. "Real-time pricing revisited: Demand flexibility in the presence of micro-generation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 642-658.
    14. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Rethinking real-time electricity pricing," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 820-842.
    15. Bigerna, Simona & Hagspiel, Verena & Kort, Peter M. & Wen, Xingang, 2023. "How damaging are environmental policy targets in terms of welfare?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(1), pages 354-372.
    16. Gürkan, G. & Ozdemir, O. & Smeers, Y., 2013. "Generation Capacity Investments in Electricity Markets : Perfect Competition," Other publications TiSEM 97828b2c-3630-4b66-8ac9-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Mattias Vesterberg & Chandra Kiran B. Krishnamurthy, 2016. "Residential End-use Electricity Demand: Implications for Real Time Pricing in Sweden," The Energy Journal, , vol. 37(4), pages 141-164, October.
    18. Gambardella, Christian & Pahle, Michael & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2020. "Do Benefits from Dynamic Tariffing Rise? Welfare Effects of Real-Time Retail Pricing Under Carbon Taxation and Variable Renewable Electricity Supply," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 75(1), pages 183-213.
    19. Poletti, Steve, 2009. "Government procurement of peak capacity in the New Zealand electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3409-3417, September.
    20. Jaeyong An & P. R. Kumar & Le Xie, 2016. "Dynamic Modeling of Price Responsive Demand in Real-time Electricity Market: Empirical Analysis," Papers 1612.05021, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej38-5-mays. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: David Williams (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaeeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.