The future of electricity retailing and how we get there / Frank A. Wolak, Ian H. Hardman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolak, Frank A., author.

Hardman, Ian H., author.

Series:

Lecture notes in energy ; Volume 41.

Lecture Notes in Energy ; Volume 41

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electric utilities.

Electric utilities--Management.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (174 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Springer, [2022]

Summary:

This book covers the current trends and challenges faced by regulators, policymakers, and researchers in the field of retail electricity market design and regulation. It addresses the role that "smart" technologies are playing in reshaping how utilities and consumers interact with each other and with their generating technologies. The book covers topics including smart meter adoption, dynamic pricing, demand response, distributed and utility-scale solar, technology costs trends, and the microeconomic theory that governs our understanding of retailer and consumer incentives. Existing inefficiencies of transmission and distribution network pricing as well as the potential regulatory approaches that can be used to remedy them are discussed along with the advantages of retail competition and draw attention to the barriers that currently are preventing all of the benefits of retail competition from materializing. The book uses very recent data to provide the most up-to-date overview of retailing trends and policies in the USA, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America. The book will be useful for researchers and regulators and policymakers.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

Contents

About the Authors

1 Introduction: Two Paths to the Future of Electricity Retailing

1.1 The Reactive Approach

1.2 The Forward-Looking Approach

1.3 Structure of This Book

2 Drivers of Change in the Retail Electricity Sector

2.1 Mechanical Versus Interval Metering Technology

2.2 Declining Costs: Sensors, Storage, and Solar

2.3 Distributed Solar: A Competitor to Grid-scale Electricity

2.4 Low Cost Two-Way Communication Technologies

2.5 Electrifying the Transportation and Heating Sectors

2.5.1 Transportation Electrification

2.5.2 Heating Electrification

References

3 Regulatory Barriers to Change

3.1 Barriers to Interval Metering Deployment

3.2 Interval Data Access and Interactivity with Consumers

3.3 Inefficient Transmission and Distribution Network Pricing

3.3.1 Inefficient Bypass: An Example from California

3.3.2 Inefficient Investment in Distributed Versus Grid-scale Solar

3.4 Regulatory Reform of Distribution Network Planning and Access

3.5 Potential for Pricing Distribution Network Services

3.6 Lowering Barriers to Adoption of New Technologies

4 Current State of Retail Markets

4.1 Retail Electricity Markets in the United States

4.2 Retail Electricity Markets Outside of the U.S.

4.3 Dynamic Pricing of Retail Electricity

4.3.1 Necessary Technological and Regulatory Framework for Dynamic Pricing

4.3.2 Dynamic Pricing Versus Time-of-Use Pricing

4.3.3 Survey of Existing Dynamic Pricing Plans

5 Current State of Deployment

5.1 Extent of Deployment of Interval Meters

5.1.1 Deployment in the United States

5.1.2 Deployment in Europe

5.1.3 Deployment in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia

5.1.4 Deployment in Latin America

5.2 Extent of Deployment of Distributed Solar.

5.2.1 Deployment in the United States

5.2.2 Deployment in Europe

5.2.3 Deployment in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia

5.2.4 Deployment in Latin America

5.3 Extent of Adoption of Dynamic Pricing

5.3.1 Adoption in the United States and Canada

5.3.2 Adoption in Europe

5.3.3 Adoption in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia

5.3.4 Adoption in Latin America

5.4 Extent of Adoption of Demand Response Programs

5.5 Rules for Third-Party Access to the Distribution Network

6 Technologies Providing Distribution Network Services

6.1 Interval Metering Systems

6.1.1 Technology Specifications

6.1.2 Customer Data Privacy

6.2 Network Monitoring Systems

6.3 Automated Load Shifting Technologies

6.4 Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems

6.5 Services Aiding Customer Participation in Wholesale Markets

7 Possible Futures of Electricity Retailing

7.1 Network Pricing Reform: An Urgent Need

7.1.1 Recovering Sunk Costs with Average-Cost Pricing

7.1.2 Recovering Sunk Costs with Marginal-Cost Pricing

7.1.3 Recovering Sunk Costs with Demand Charges

7.2 If Dynamic Pricing Is Efficient, Why Don't Customers Like It?

7.2.1 The Role of Retail Competition in Defining the Feasible Frontier

7.2.2 Symmetric Treatment of Load and Generation

7.2.3 Managing the Transition to Widespread Deployment of Interval Meters

7.2.4 The Broader Economic Benefits of Dynamic Pricing

7.3 Price Volatility Supports Flexible Demand Technologies

7.3.1 Wholesale Market Designs that Reduce Price Volatility

7.3.2 The Benefits of a Multi-settlement LMP Market

7.3.3 Wholesale Market Design for Forward-Looking Future of Retailing

7.4 Reactive Versus Forward-Looking: Determining Futures for Retailing

7.4.1 Forward-Looking

References.

8 Retail Market Design Lessons from California and Texas

8.1 Shortcomings of California's Demand Response Products

8.2 Lessons from February 2021 in Texas for Retail Market Design

8.2.1 The Reliability Externality in the Texas Market

8.2.2 Regulatory Oversight of Electricity Retailers

8.3 Electricity Retailing with a Large Share of Intermittent Renewables

9 Directions for Future Research

9.1 Technical and Financial Viability of Direct Load Control

9.2 Regulated Non-wires Alternatives and Unregulated Services

9.3 Financial Viability of DERMS Investments

9.4 Spatial and Temporal Pricing of Distribution Networks

9.5 Adapting Customers to Manage Wholesale Price Volatility

9.6 Bundling Strategies for Low Carbon Energy Solutions

Appendix A Additional Figures

Appendix B Data and Methodology

B.1 Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration

B.1.1 Advanced Metering

B.1.2 Dynamic Pricing

B.1.3 Distributed Solar

B.1.4 Demand Response

B.1.5 Retail Price Data

B.2 Data from Bloomberg

B.2.1 Technology Prices

B.2.2 Global Electric Vehicle Trends

B.3 Calculations with IEA's Renewables 2019 Data

B.4 Electric Vehicle Trends in the United States.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-030-85005-6

OCLC:

1281967865