An exploratory analysis of California residential customer response to critical peak pricing of electricity

This paper summarizes the results from an exploratory analysis of residential customer response to a critical peak pricing (CPP) experiment in California, in which 15 times per year participating customers received high price signals dispatched by a local electricity distribution company. The high p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy (Oxford) 2007, Vol.32 (1), p.25-34
Main Authors: Herter, Karen, McAuliffe, Patrick, Rosenfeld, Arthur
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Critical peak pricing
Demand response
Economic data
Electric energy
Electricity pricing
Energy
Energy economics
Exact sciences and technology
General, economic and professional studies
Load response
Residential electricity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper summarizes the results from an exploratory analysis of residential customer response to a critical peak pricing (CPP) experiment in California, in which 15 times per year participating customers received high price signals dispatched by a local electricity distribution company. The high prices were about three times the on-peak price for the otherwise applicable time-of-use rate. Using hourly load data collected during the 15-month experiment, we find statistically significant load reduction for participants both with and without automated end-use control technologies. During 5-h critical peak periods, participants without control technology used up to 13% less energy than they did during normal peak periods. Participants equipped with programmable communicating thermostats used 25% and 41% less for 5 and 2 h critical events, respectively. Thus, this paper offers convincing evidence that the residential sector can provide substantial contributions to retail demand response, which is considered a potential tool for mitigating market power, stabilizing wholesale market prices, managing system reliability, and maintaining system resource adequacy.
ISSN:0360-5442
DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2006.01.014