Customer demand for service reliability: A synthesis of the outage costs literature: Final report

Technical Report · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1989

OSTI ID:5830502

Caves, D W; Herriges, J A; Windle, R J

Information on the outage costs that electricity customers incur during power interruptions is important for the design of priority service programs, for the development of efficient electricity prices, and for capacity planning. This report reviews existing and potential sources of outage cost information. Recent research on outage costs has relied primarily on survey information. Results from these studies are compared in this report so that a range of outage costs can be established by customer class. A major finding is that the estimated range is quite broad and that there are marked uncertainties accompanying the interpretation of the estimates. Alternative and largely unexplored sources of information on outage costs arise from actual behavioral data. Two kinds of behavioral data are of interest: customer choices of programs, such as interruptible rates, that provide the customer with a payment in exchange for the risk of interruption, and real-time pricing programs that confront the customer with frequently changing prices. Although either type of behavioral data would be a potential source of outage cost information, their use for this purpose to date has been quite limited. In many instances the data generated by existing programs is of little use because the programs were not designed for the purpose of achieving research objectives. The overall conclusion is that although existing studies have provided a research base, considerable work still ahead in order to achieve a firm understanding of customer outage costs. The report closes with some observation on how future survey projects and field implementation of programs of an interruptible nature can be designed to help add to knowledge of customer outage costs. 83 refs., 19 figs., 8 tabs.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA); Christensen (Laurits R.) Associates, Inc., Madison, WI (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5830502
• Report Number(s): EPRI-P-6510
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

200300 -- Electric Power Engineering-- Power Transmission & Distribution-- (-1989)
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
296000* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Electric Power
COST
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
LOAD MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
OUTAGES
PRICES
PROGRESS REPORT
PUBLIC UTILITIES
RELIABILITY