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The Long-Run Efficiency of Real-Time Electricity Pricing

Abstract:
Retail real-time pricing (RTP) of electricity Ð retail pricing that changes hourly to reflect the changing supply/demand balance Ð is very appealing to economists because it Òsends the right price signals.Ó Economic efficiency gains from RTP, however, are often confused with the short-term wealth transfers from producers to consumers that RTP can create. Abstracting from transfers, I focus on the long-run efficiency gains from adopting RTP in a competitive electricity market. Using simple simulations with realistic parameters, I demonstrate that the magnitude of efficiency gains from RTP is likely to be significant even if demand shows very little elasticity. I also show that Òtime-of-useÓ pricing, a simple peak and off-peak pricing system, is likely to capture a very small share of the efficiency gains that RTP offers.

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Energy Specializations: Electricity – Markets and Prices ; Electricity – Policy and Regulation; Energy Access – Energy Poverty and Equity

JEL Codes: L11: Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms, Q41: Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices, D24: Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity, Q40: Energy: General, D12: Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

Keywords: Electricity, real-time pricing (RTP), time-of-use pricing (TOU), welfare

DOI: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol26-No3-5

Published in Volume 26, Number 3 of the bi-monthly journal of the IAEE's Energy Economics Education Foundation.

 

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