Full Title: Accelerating the Energy Transition Through Advanced Rate Design
Author(s): Jennifer Potter and Alex Pfeifer-Rosenblum
Publisher(s): Strategen
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Advanced rate design refers to a dedicated process outside of a traditional rate case in which an electric utility develops a comprehensive suite of tariffs to maximize load flexibility. Traditional utility rates often reflect simple pricing structures such as flat rates or tiered pricing. If offered at all, time-varying rate options are typically limited and unable to translate every customer’s needs and capabilities into grid benefits. In addition, such rates may not be updated at a sufficient pace to reflect a rapidly evolving power grid. In contrast, advanced rate design aims to create more dynamic, flexible, and responsive pricing or direct load control mechanisms that can better accommodate customers while aligning with the changing dynamics of energy markets, consumer behavior, and grid management. Such an approach is becoming increasingly important as a transforming power grid, which must integrate increasing levels of variable, renewable generation while accommodating increased loads due to electrification, leads to a rapidly evolving distribution of costs throughout the day and year.