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Demand and Pricing in Electricity Markets: Evidence from San Diego During California's Energy Crisis

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  • Peter C. Reiss
  • Matthew W. White

Abstract

We study the electricity consumption of San Diego-area households following a series of price changes and related events during California's energy crisis in 2000-01. The analysis uses a five-year panel of disaggregate billing and weather data for a random sample of 70,000 households. In contrast to prior work, these data allow us to proceed without behavioral assumptions regarding a consumer's knowledge of energy prices. We find that after a rapid price increase in summer 2000, consumption fell substantially over about 60 days, averaging 12% per household; consumption then rebounded to within 3% of pre-crisis levels after a price cap was imposed. Under the price cap public appeals for energy conservation and a remunerative voluntary conservation program had significant, but transitory, effects. Further, a large share of households reduced electricity consumption substantially (over 10%) but saved small monetary amounts ($10 or less). Overall, the results indicate consumers may be far more responsive to pecuniary and non-pecuniary incentives for altering their energy use than is commonly believed.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2003. "Demand and Pricing in Electricity Markets: Evidence from San Diego During California's Energy Crisis," NBER Working Papers 9986, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9986
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Fan, 2011. "Distributional impact analysis of the energy price reform in Turkey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5831, The World Bank.
    2. Prasanna, Ashreeta & Mahmoodi, Jasmin & Brosch, Tobias & Patel, Martin K., 2018. "Recent experiences with tariffs for saving electricity in households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 514-522.
    3. Michael J. Trebilcock & Roy Hrab, 2005. "Electricity Restructuring In Ontario," The Energy Journal, , vol. 26(1), pages 123-146, January.
    4. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2008. "What changes energy consumption? Prices and public pressures," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(3), pages 636-663, September.
    5. 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.
    6. Steinhäuser, J. Micha & Eisenack, Klaus, 2020. "How market design shapes the spatial distribution of power plant curtailment costs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. James B. Bushnell & Erin T. Mansur, 2005. "Consumption Under Noisy Price Signals: A Study Of Electricity Retail Rate Deregulation In San Diego," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 493-513, December.
    8. 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.
    9. Galetovic, Alexander & Muñoz, Cristián M., 2011. "Regulated electricity retailing in Chile," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 6453-6465, October.
    10. J. Micha Steinhäuser & Klaus Eisenack, 2015. "Spatial incidence of large-scale power plant curtailment costs," Working Papers V-379-15, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2015.
    11. Galetovic, Alexander & Muñoz, Cristián M., 2009. "Estimating deficit probabilities with price-responsive demand in contract-based electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 560-569, February.
    12. Matthew J. Kotchen & Laura E. Grant, 2011. "Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Indiana," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1172-1185, November.
    13. Fan Zhang, 2015. "Energy Price Reform and Household Welfare: The Case of Turkey," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).

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    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy

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