Electricity pricing and load management: foreign experience and California opportunities

Technical Report · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1977

OSTI ID:7286335

Mitchell, B M; Manning, Jr, W G; Acton, J P

Because a utility maintains sufficient capacity to generate and distribute electricity to meet the maximum amount demanded at any time, the cost of supplying power at hours of peak demand is higher than it would be if the same amount of electricity were used at all hours of the day, throughout the year. European utilities have historically sold electricity at rates that reflect these daily and seasonal differences in supply costs. Until very recently such time-related peak-load methods of pricing have not usually been a part of American practice... The opportunities for shifting electrical peak loads in California are most readily assessed for industrial consumers. Comparisons of industry-specific load curves for French firms in 18 industrial groups with their California counterparts in the same industries establish the potential for substantial load shifting in California. If California utilities were to sell power to customers in these 18 industries under peak-load tariffs, backed by economic incentives for off-peak consumption similar to the incentives offered by French high-voltage tariffs, the amount of electricity used during a 4-hour peak period could be reduced by 54 million to 76 million kWh/mo., or by 33 to 46 percent of the present statewide peak-hour industrial demand. Load shifts of this magnitude would result in more efficient uses of fuel and achieve savings of as much as $1.3 million per month. If all types of industries in California were to respond to peak-load tariffs in a similar fashion, the load shifts and fuel savings would be some 80 percent larger. The full benefits of industrial load shifting in California would be achieved gradually over a period of severl years as industries incorporated design changes into expansion and replacement of existing productive facilities.

• Research Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Calif. (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7286335
• Report Number(s): R-2106-CERCDC
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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CALIFORNIA
CHARGES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONSUMPTION RATES
DAILY VARIATIONS
ELECTRIC POWER
EUROPE
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INDUSTRY
LOAD MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
NORTH AMERICA
PEAK-LOAD PRICING
POWER
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
USA
VARIATIONS