IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v49y2012icp552-561.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer responses to time varying prices for electricity

Author

Listed:
  • Thorsnes, Paul
  • Williams, John
  • Lawson, Rob

Abstract

We report new experimental evidence of the household response to weekday differentials in peak and off-peak electricity prices. The data come from Auckland, New Zealand, where peak residential electricity consumption occurs in winter for heating. Peak/off-peak price differentials ranged over four randomly selected groups from 1.0 to 3.5. On average, there was no response except in winter. In winter, participant households reduced electricity consumption by at least 10%, took advantage of lower off-peak prices but did not respond to the peak price differentials. Response varied with house and household size, time spent away from home, and whether water was heated with electricity.

Suggested Citation

  • Thorsnes, Paul & Williams, John & Lawson, Rob, 2012. "Consumer responses to time varying prices for electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 552-561.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:552-561
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512005721
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.062?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caves, Douglas W. & Christensen, Laurits R. & Herriges, Joseph A., 1984. "Consistency of residential customer response in time-of-use electricity pricing experiments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1-2), pages 179-203.
    2. Massimo, Filippini, 2011. "Short- and long-run time-of-use price elasticities in Swiss residential electricity demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5811-5817, October.
    3. Douglas W. Caves & Joseph A. Herriges & Kathleen A. Kuester, 1989. "Load Shifting Under Voluntary Residential Time-of-Use Rates," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 83-99.
    4. Mostafa Baladi, S. & Herriges, Joseph A. & Sweeney, Thomas J., 1998. "Residential response to voluntary time-of-use electricity rates," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 225-244, September.
    5. Faruqui, Ahmad & Hledik, Ryan & Tsoukalis, John, 2009. "The Power of Dynamic Pricing," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 42-56, April.
    6. Faruqui, Ahmad & George, Stephen S., 2002. "The Value of Dynamic Pricing in Mass Markets," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 45-55, July.
    7. Dennis Aigner, 1985. "The Residential Electricity Time-of-Use Pricing Experiments: What Have We Learned?," NBER Chapters, in: Social Experimentation, pages 11-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2008. "What changes energy consumption? Prices and public pressures," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(3), pages 636-663, September.
    9. Lillard, Lee A & Aigner, Dennis J, 1984. "Time-of-Day Electricity Consumption Response to Temperature and the Ownership of Air Conditioning Appliances," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(1), pages 40-53, January.
    10. Matsukawa, Isamu, 2001. "Household Response to Optional Peak-Load Pricing of Electricity," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 249-267, November.
    11. Herter, Karen, 2007. "Residential implementation of critical-peak pricing of electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 2121-2130, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rob Lawson & Paul Thorsnes & John Williams, 2011. "Consumer Response to Time Varying Prices for Electricity," Working Papers 1116, University of Otago, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2011.
    2. Ericson, Torgeir, 2011. "Households' self-selection of dynamic electricity tariffs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(7), pages 2541-2547, July.
    3. Kazutoshi Tsuda & Michinori Uwasu & Keishiro Hara & Yukari Fuchigami, 2017. "Approaches to induce behavioral changes with respect to electricity consumption," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 7(1), pages 30-38, March.
    4. Hobman, Elizabeth V. & Frederiks, Elisha R. & Stenner, Karen & Meikle, Sarah, 2016. "Uptake and usage of cost-reflective electricity pricing: Insights from psychology and behavioural economics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 455-467.
    5. Boßmann, Tobias & Eser, Eike Johannes, 2016. "Model-based assessment of demand-response measures—A comprehensive literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1637-1656.
    6. Torgeir Ericson, 2006. "Time-differentiated pricing and direct load control of residential electricity consumption," Discussion Papers 461, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    7. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Derek Stenclik & Sherilyn Wee & Aida Arik, 2018. "Integrating Renewable Energy with Time Varying Pricing," Working Papers 2018-6, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    8. Lang, Corey & Okwelum, Edson, 2015. "The mitigating effect of strategic behavior on the net benefits of a direct load control program," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 141-148.
    9. Massimo, Filippini, 2011. "Short- and long-run time-of-use price elasticities in Swiss residential electricity demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5811-5817, October.
    10. Cappers, Peter A. & Todd-Blick, Annika, 2021. "Heterogeneity in own-price residential customer demand elasticities for electricity under time-of-use rates: Evidence from a randomized-control trial in the United States," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Qiu, Yueming & Colson, Gregory & Wetzstein, Michael E., 2017. "Risk preference and adverse selection for participation in time-of-use electricity pricing programs," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 126-142.
    12. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Sherilyn Wee & Aida Arik, 2016. "Estimating the Opportunity for Load-Shifting in Hawaii: An Analysis of Proposed Residential Time-of-Use Rates," Working Papers 2016-10, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    13. Woo, C.K. & Sreedharan, P. & Hargreaves, J. & Kahrl, F. & Wang, J. & Horowitz, I., 2014. "A review of electricity product differentiation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 262-272.
    14. Takanori Ida & Wenjie Wang, 2014. "A Field Experiment on Dynamic Electricity Pricing in Los Alamos:Opt-in Versus Opt-out," Discussion papers e-14-010, Graduate School of Economics Project Center, Kyoto University.
    15. Torgeir Ericson, 2006. "Households' self-selection of a dynamic electricity tariff," Discussion Papers 446, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    16. Ahmad Faruqui & Sanem Sergici, 2010. "Household response to dynamic pricing of electricity: a survey of 15 experiments," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 193-225, October.
    17. Lawrence J. Hill, 1991. "Can developing countries benefit from innovative pricing in the power sector?," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 15(1), pages 15-25, February.
    18. He, Yongxiu & Wang, Bing & Wang, Jianhui & Xiong, Wei & Xia, Tian, 2012. "Residential demand response behavior analysis based on Monte Carlo simulation: The case of Yinchuan in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 230-236.
    19. Meyabadi, A. Fattahi & Deihimi, M.H., 2017. "A review of demand-side management: Reconsidering theoretical framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 367-379.
    20. Herter, Karen & Wayland, Seth, 2010. "Residential response to critical-peak pricing of electricity: California evidence," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1561-1567.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:49:y:2012:i:c:p:552-561. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.