IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tse/wpaper/26343.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is mandating "smart meters" smart?

Author

Listed:
  • Léautier, Thomas-Olivier

Abstract

The advent of "smart meters" will make possible Real Time Pricing of electricity: customers will face and react to wholesale spot prices, thus consumption of electric power will be aligned with its opportunity cost. This article determines the marginal value of a fraction of demand (or a consumer) switching to Real Time Pricing. First, it derives this marginal value for a simple yet realistic specification of demand. Second, using data from the French power market, it estimates that, for the vast majority of residential customers whose peak demand is lower than 6 kV A, the net surplus from switching to Real Time Pricing is lower than 1 euro/year for low demand elasticity, 4 euros/year for high demand elasticity. This finding casts a doubt on the economic value of rolling out smart meters to all residential customers, for both policy makers and power suppliers.

Suggested Citation

  • Léautier, Thomas-Olivier, 2012. "Is mandating "smart meters" smart?," TSE Working Papers 12-341, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:wpaper:26343
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/medias/doc/wp/io/wp_tse_341.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Joskow & Jean Tirole, 2007. "Reliability and competitive electricity markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(1), pages 60-84, March.
    2. Robert H. Patrick & Frank A. Wolak, 2001. "Estimating the Customer-Level Demand for Electricity Under Real-Time Market Prices," NBER Working Papers 8213, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. 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.
    4. Stephen P. Holland & Erin T. Mansur, 2006. "The Short-Run Effects of Time-Varying Prices in Competitive Electricity Markets," The Energy Journal, , vol. 27(4), pages 127-156, October.
    5. Hunt Allcott, 2012. "The Smart Grid, Entry, and Imperfect Competition in Electricity Markets," NBER Working Papers 18071, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Lijesen, Mark G., 2007. "The real-time price elasticity of electricity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 249-258, March.
    7. 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.
    8. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Rethinking real-time electricity pricing," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 820-842.
    9. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2005. "Household Electricity Demand, Revisited," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 853-883.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Are smart meters worth it?
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2012-12-04 21:35:00

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1621 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Cédric Clastres & Haikel Khalfallah, 2021. "Dynamic pricing efficiency with strategic retailers and consumers: An analytical analysis of short-term market interactions," Post-Print hal-03193212, HAL.
    3. Anette Boom & Sebastian Schwenen, 2021. "Is real-time pricing smart for consumers?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 60(2), pages 193-213, December.
    4. Clastres, Cédric & Khalfallah, Haikel, 2015. "An analytical approach to activating demand elasticity with a demand response mechanism," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(PA), pages 195-206.
    5. Léautier, Thomas-Olivier, 2014. "The "demand side" effect of price caps: uncertainty, imperfect competition, and rationing," IDEI Working Papers 815, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    6. Silvia Concettini & Anna Creti, 2013. "Liberalization of electricity retailing in Europe: coming back or going forth?," Working Papers hal-00915924, HAL.
    7. Michael Pahle, Wolf-Peter Schill, Christian Gambardella, and Oliver Tietjen, 2016. "Renewable Energy Support, Negative Prices, and Real-time Pricing," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Sustainab).
    8. Dato, Prudence & Durmaz, Tunç & Pommeret, Aude, 2020. "Smart grids and renewable electricity generation by households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Gambardella, Christian & Pahle, Michael, 2018. "Time-varying electricity pricing and consumer heterogeneity: Welfare and distributional effects with variable renewable supply," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 257-273.
    10. Stefan Ambec & Claude Crampes, 2019. "Decarbonizing Electricity Generation with Intermittent Sources of Energy," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(6), pages 1105-1134.
    11. Cédric Clastres & Haikel Khalfallah, 2015. "An Analytical Approach to Activating Demand Elasticity with a Demand Response Mechanism," Post-Print hal-01222582, HAL.
    12. Thomas-Olivier Léautier, 2016. "The Visible Hand: Ensuring Optimal Investment in Electric Power Generation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    13. Fadoua Chiba & Sébastien Rouillon, 2020. "Intermittent Electric Generation Technologies and Smart Meters: Substitutes or Complements," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 130(4), pages 573-613.
    14. Tunç Durmaz & Aude Pommeret & Ian Ridley, 2017. "Willingness to Pay for Solar Panels and Smart Grids," Working Papers 2017.24, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    15. Leautier, Thomas-Olivier, 2018. "On the long-term impact price caps: Investment, uncertainty, imperfect competition, and rationing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 53-95.
    16. 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.
    17. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1507 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Léautier, Thomas-Olivier, 2014. "The "demand side" effect of price caps: uncertainty, imperfect competition, and ration," TSE Working Papers 14-460, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    19. Clastres, Cédric & Khalfallah, Haikel, 2021. "Dynamic pricing efficiency with strategic retailers and consumers: An analytical analysis of short-term market interactions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    20. Cédric Clastres & Haikel Khalfallah, 2020. "Retailers' strategies facing demand response and markets interactions," Working Papers hal-03167543, HAL.
    21. Dahlke, Steven & Prorok, Matt, 2018. "Consumer savings, price, and emissions impacts of increasing demand response in the Midcontinent electricity market," OSF Preprints d83bu, Center for Open Science.

    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. Allcott, Hunt, 2011. "Rethinking real-time electricity pricing," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 820-842.
    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. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1621 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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).
    8. Pedro Linares & Xavier Labandeira, 2010. "Energy Efficiency: Economics And Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 573-592, July.
    9. J. Scott Holladay and Steven Soloway, 2016. "The Environmental Impacts of Fuel Switching Electricity Generators," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    10. Nolan Ritter & Julia Anna Bingler, 2021. "Do homo sapiens know their prices? Insights on dysfunctional price mechanisms from a large field experiment," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 21/348, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    11. Freier, Julia & von Loessl, Victor, 2022. "Dynamic electricity tariffs: Designing reasonable pricing schemes for private households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Christian Gambardella & Michael Pahle & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "Do Benefits from Dynamic Tariffing Rise? Welfare Effects of Real-Time Retail Pricing Under Carbon Taxation and Variable Renewable Electricity Supply," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(1), pages 183-213, January.
    15. J. Scott Holladay & Steven Soloway, 2015. "The Environmental Impacts of Fuel Switching Power Plants," Working Papers 2015-05, University of Tennessee, Department of Economics.
    16. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Derek Stenclik & Sherilyn Wee & Aida Arik, 2018. "Integrating Renewable Energy with Time Varying Pricing," Working Papers 2018-6, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    17. Enrich, Jacint & Li, Ruoyi & Mizrahi, Alejandro & Reguant, Mar, 2024. "Measuring the impact of time-of-use pricing on electricity consumption: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    18. Leslie, Gordon W. & Pourkhanali, Armin & Roger, Guillaume, 2024. "Is the clean energy transition making fixed-rate electricity tariffs regressive?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    19. Thomas-Olivier Léautier, 2016. "The Visible Hand: Ensuring Optimal Investment in Electric Power Generation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    20. Wai Choi & Anindya Sen & Adam White, 2011. "Response of industrial customers to hourly pricing in Ontario’s deregulated electricity market," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 303-323, December.
    21. Jordehi, A. Rezaee, 2019. "Optimisation of demand response in electric power systems, a review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 308-319.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    electric power markets; demand response; smart grid;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:tse:wpaper:26343. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tsetofr.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.