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Average residential outage cost estimates for the lower 48 states in the US

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  • Woo, C.K.
  • Tishler, A.
  • Zarnikau, J.
  • Chen, Y.

Abstract

Motivated by diverse residential electricity outage cost estimates and possible hypothetical bias of contingent valuation (CV) survey data, this paper proposes a simple formula for market-based estimation of residential outage costs. Its key finding is that average residential outage cost estimates for the lower 48 states of the US range from US$0.12 to US$0.34 per kWh unserved, below the regional CV-based estimates of US$1.0 to US$4.2 per kWh unserved found by a national study. It makes three contributions to the literature of residential outage cost estimation. First, it obviates collecting and analysing CV survey data for estimating average residential outage costs. Second, its proposed formula has minimal data requirements and is applicable to any city, state, region, or country. Finally, it details the policy implications of our newly found empirics in electricity pricing, resource planning, resource procurement, electricity product differentiation, and performance-based regulation of electricity reliability.

Suggested Citation

  • Woo, C.K. & Tishler, A. & Zarnikau, J. & Chen, Y., 2021. "Average residential outage cost estimates for the lower 48 states in the US," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:98:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321001754
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105270
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Residential electricity outage cost; Market-based estimation; US$ per kWh unserved; Simple formula; USA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

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