IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v195y2024ics0301421524003781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Profile contracts for electricity retail customers

Author

Listed:
  • Winzer, Christian
  • Ramírez-Molina, Héctor
  • Hirth, Lion
  • Schlecht, Ingmar

Abstract

Decarbonization involves a large-scale expansion of low-carbon generators such as wind and solar and the electrification of heating and transport. Both space heating and battery-electric cars have significant embedded flexibility potential. Granular price signals that convey abundance or scarcity of electricity are a precondition for customers or aggregators acting on their behalf to exploit this flexibility. However, unmitigated real-time prices expose customers to electricity price risks. To tackle the dual need of providing flexibility incentives while protecting customers from cost shocks, real-time tariffs with a hedging component can be a solution. In such contracts customers pre-agree an amount of energy and a consumption profile, while hourly deviations are charged at spot prices. In this paper we analyze design options by using a dataset of anonymized smart meter data and show that profile tariffs can bring electricity bill volatility to similarly low levels as fixed tariffs while providing full flexibility incentives from spot prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Winzer, Christian & Ramírez-Molina, Héctor & Hirth, Lion & Schlecht, Ingmar, 2024. "Profile contracts for electricity retail customers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:195:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524003781
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114358
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524003781
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114358?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Severin Borenstein, 2007. "Customer Risk from Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing: Bill Volatility and Hedgability," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 111-130.
    2. Ronald I. McKinnon, 1967. "Futures Markets, Buffer Stocks, and Income Stability for Primary Producers," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(6), pages 844-844.
    3. Han Shu & Jacob Mays, 2022. "Beyond capacity: contractual form in electricity reliability obligations," Papers 2210.10858, arXiv.org.
    4. Eicke, Anselm & Ruhnau, Oliver & Hirth, Lion, 2021. "Electricity balancing as a market equilibrium: An instrument-based estimation of supply and demand for imbalance energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Lee, Eunjung & Lee, Kyungeun & Lee, Hyoseop & Kim, Euncheol & Rhee, Wonjong, 2019. "Defining virtual control group to improve customer baseline load calculation of residential demand response," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 946-958.
    6. David P. Brown and David E. M. Sappington, 2023. "Load-Following Forward Contracts," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    7. Kris Kessels & Carolien Kraan & Ludwig Karg & Simone Maggiore & Pieter Valkering & Erik Laes, 2016. "Fostering Residential Demand Response through Dynamic Pricing Schemes: A Behavioural Review of Smart Grid Pilots in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Hung-po Chao, 2011. "Demand response in wholesale electricity markets: the choice of customer baseline," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 68-88, February.
    9. Bushnell, James & Hobbs, Benjamin F. & Wolak, Frank A., 2009. "When It Comes to Demand Response, Is FERC Its Own Worst Enemy?," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(8), pages 9-18, October.
    10. Schlecht, Ingmar & Maurer, Christoph & Hirth, Lion, 2024. "Financial contracts for differences: The problems with conventional CfDs in electricity markets and how forward contracts can help solve them," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    11. Koch, Christopher & Hirth, Lion, 2019. "Short-term electricity trading for system balancing: An empirical analysis of the role of intraday trading in balancing Germany's electricity system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Ottavia Valentini & Nikoleta Andreadou & Paolo Bertoldi & Alexandre Lucas & Iolanda Saviuc & Evangelos Kotsakis, 2022. "Demand Response Impact Evaluation: A Review of Methods for Estimating the Customer Baseline Load," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-36, July.
    13. David P. Brown & David E. M. Sappington, 2023. "Load-Following Forward Contracts," The Energy Journal, , vol. 44(3), pages 187-222, May.
    14. Dütschke, Elisabeth & Paetz, Alexandra-Gwyn, 2013. "Dynamic electricity pricing—Which programs do consumers prefer?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 226-234.
    15. Koichiro Ito, 2014. "Do Consumers Respond to Marginal or Average Price? Evidence from Nonlinear Electricity Pricing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 537-563, February.
    16. Severin Borenstein, 2007. "Customer Risk from Real-Time Retail Electricity Pricing: Bill Volatility and Hedgability," The Energy Journal, , vol. 28(2), pages 111-130, April.
    17. Hung-po Chao & Mario DePillis, 2013. "Incentive effects of paying demand response in wholesale electricity markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 265-283, June.
    18. Möller, Christoph & Rachev, Svetlozar T. & Fabozzi, Frank J., 2011. "Balancing energy strategies in electricity portfolio management," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 2-11, January.
    19. Nicolson, Moira L. & Fell, Michael J. & Huebner, Gesche M., 2018. "Consumer demand for time of use electricity tariffs: A systematized review of the empirical evidence," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 276-289.
    20. Goutam Dutta & Krishnendranath Mitra, 2017. "A literature review on dynamic pricing of electricity," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 68(10), pages 1131-1145, October.
    21. Ahmad Faruqui & Sanem Sergici, 2010. "Household response to dynamic pricing of electricity: a survey of 15 experiments," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 193-225, October.
    22. Parrish, Bryony & Heptonstall, Phil & Gross, Rob & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2020. "A systematic review of motivations, enablers and barriers for consumer engagement with residential demand response," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Patrick Ludwig & Christian Winzer, 2022. "Tariff Menus to Avoid Rebound Peaks: Results from a Discrete Choice Experiment with Swiss Customers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-21, August.
    2. Pretto, Madeline, 2021. "Tail-risk Comprehension and Protection in Real-time Electricity Pricing : Experimental Evidence," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 25, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    3. Lehmann, Nico & Sloot, Daniel & Ardone, Armin & Fichtner, Wolf, 2022. "Consumer preferences for the design of a demand response quota scheme – Results of a choice experiment in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    4. Ren'e Aid & Dylan Possamai & Nizar Touzi, 2018. "Optimal electricity demand response contracting with responsiveness incentives," Papers 1810.09063, arXiv.org, revised May 2019.
    5. Hortay, Olivér & Kökény, László, 2020. "A villamosenergia-fogyasztás elhalasztásával kapcsolatos lakossági attitűd felmérése Magyarországon [A survey of popular attitudes to deferment of electricity consumption in Hungary]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(7), pages 657-687.
    6. Biggar, Darryl R. & Hesamzadeh, Mohammad Reza, 2024. "Optimal retail contracts with contractible uncertainty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    7. Bergaentzlé, Claire & Clastres, Cédric & Khalfallah, Haikel, 2014. "Demand-side management and European environmental and energy goals: An optimal complementary approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 858-869.
    8. Capitán, Tabaré & Alpízar, Francisco & Madrigal-Ballestero, Róger & Pattanayak, Subhrendu K., 2021. "Time-varying pricing may increase total electricity consumption: Evidence from Costa Rica," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Nikolas Schöne & Kathrin Greilmeier & Boris Heinz, 2022. "Survey-Based Assessment of the Preferences in Residential Demand Response on the Island of Mayotte," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-30, February.
    10. Cabot, Clément & Villavicencio, Manuel, 2024. "The demand-side flexibility in liberalised power market: A review of current market design and objectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    11. Curtis, John & Brazil, William & Harold, Jason, 2019. "Understanding preference heterogeneity in electricity services: the case of domestic appliance curtailment contracts," Papers WP638, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    12. Helferich, Marvin & Tröger, Josephine & Stephan, Annegret & Preuß, Sabine & Pelka, Sabine & Stute, Judith & Plötz, Patrick, 2024. "Tariff option preferences for smart and bidirectional charging: Evidence from battery electric vehicle users in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    13. Yang, Changhui & Meng, Chen & Zhou, Kaile, 2018. "Residential electricity pricing in China: The context of price-based demand response," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2870-2878.
    14. Xu Chen and Andrew N. Kleit, 2016. "Money for Nothing? Why FERC Order 745 Should have Died," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    15. Claire Bergaentzlé & Cédric Clastres & Haikel Khalfallah, 2014. "Demand-side management and European environmental and energy goals: an optimal complementary approach," Post-Print halshs-00928678, HAL.
    16. Ottavia Valentini & Nikoleta Andreadou & Paolo Bertoldi & Alexandre Lucas & Iolanda Saviuc & Evangelos Kotsakis, 2022. "Demand Response Impact Evaluation: A Review of Methods for Estimating the Customer Baseline Load," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-36, July.
    17. Lim, Keumju & Lee, Jongsu & Lee, Hyunjoo, 2021. "Implementing automated residential demand response in South Korea: Consumer preferences and market potential," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. D’Ettorre, F. & Banaei, M. & Ebrahimy, R. & Pourmousavi, S. Ali & Blomgren, E.M.V. & Kowalski, J. & Bohdanowicz, Z. & Łopaciuk-Gonczaryk, B. & Biele, C. & Madsen, H., 2022. "Exploiting demand-side flexibility: State-of-the-art, open issues and social perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    19. Claire Bergaentzlé & Cédric Clastres, 2013. "Tarifications dynamiques et efficacité énergétique : l'apport des Smart Grids," Post-Print halshs-00822731, HAL.
    20. Dong, Jun & Jiang, Yuzheng & Liu, Dongran & Dou, Xihao & Liu, Yao & Peng, Shicheng, 2022. "Promoting dynamic pricing implementation considering policy incentives and electricity retailers’ behaviors: An evolutionary game model based on prospect theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

    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:eee:enepol:v:195:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524003781. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    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.