Systems Integration of Real-Time Pricing at PGandE

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PGandE) has developed a demonstration real-time pricing program which has long-term promise for large industrial customers. The demonstration is designed to focus on five key operational considerations - Hardware Development, Costing and Rate Design, Marketing, Customer Operations and Billing, and Analysis. A particularly important aspect of PGandE´s success with real-time pricing has been the use of small working groups, drawn from functional departments, which focus on each systems integration issue. PGandE´s experience thusfar clearly demonstrates the importance of systems integration to successfully implementing new rate schedules such as real-time pricing.