Voluntary residential time-of-use rates: lessons learned from Pacific Gas and Electric Company´s experiment

The authors present findings from the analysis of PG&E´s (Pacific Gas and Electric´s) residential TOU (time-of-use) experiment, one of the first in the country to examine a voluntary TOU tariff programme. Analysis of the experimental data shows that, in addition to providing some customers with the opportunity to achieve a windfall bill reduction, TOU rates can achieve significant load shifting. It is concluded that this bodes well for other utilities that are contemplating offering TOU as a rate option to the residential sector, since the greater the degree of load shifting, the lower will be the rates of the customers who remain on the standard tariff. It is further concluded that PG&E´s empirical findings from extensive surveys of both volunteers and nonvolunteers will also provide valuable guidance for the marketing and customer education efforts of other utilities that wish to offer a TOU rate option to their residential customers