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What Next for SmartGridCity? Xcel Wants to Test Dynamic Pricing By SGN Staff Feb 9, 2010 - 3:59:35 PM
Here's one pilot all utilities should be watching. Most pundits predict the U.S. will gradually move to dynamic pricing for electricity. But there are precious few models and examples (and many of those are bad examples, as with Puget Sound Energy's infamous debacle). Now Smart Grid pioneer Xcel has filed to experiment with three different flavors of dynamic pricing in Boulder.
Xcel Energy has asked the Colorado PUC for permission to initiate a pilot pricing program for Boulder's SmartGridCity to test customer acceptance of three different electricity pricing options. If approved by the PUC, the pilot would be launched in April of this year.
The utility wants to enroll from 1,500 to a maximum of 2,000 SmartGridCity customers and keep them involved in the pilot through December 2011.
Customers in the pilot program will be offered the three options "to test customer understanding, acceptance, and behavioral change resulting from the use of pricing signals," according to Xcel.
The options include:
· Time-of-Use (TOU) rate: Each day will be divided into two segments, on-peak and off-peak, and customers will pay more for their on-peak power use.
· Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) rate: This rate will be the same as the TOU rate, but will add a third tier of use on days when grid capacity or economic conditions warrant it.
· Peak Time Rebate (PTR) rate: Customers will pay the standard rate, but will get rebates when they cut their consumption during times of critical peak demand.
Pilot participants and others equipped with smart meters will have access to a Web site where they can see their consumption in near real-time, every 15 minutes.
A control group that won't receive any of the three pilot rates will be used as a baseline to evaluate the pilot program.
The overall goal is to understand the impact of optional in-home devices and optional pricing policies on residential energy consumption and demand. . From the source ...
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