Academic literature on the topic 'Time of Use (ToU) tariff'

Smart meters and dynamic pricing are key factors in implementing a smart grid. Dynamic pricing is one of the demand-side management methods that can shift demand from on-peak to off-peak. Furthermore, dynamic pricing can help utilities reduce the investment cost of a power system by charging different prices at different times according to system load profile. On the other hand, a dynamic pricing strategy that can satisfy residential customers is required from the customer’s perspective. Residential load profiles can be used to comprehend residential customers’ preferences for electricity tariffs. In this study, in order to analyze the preference for time-of-use (TOU) rates of Korean residential customers through residential electricity consumption data, a representative load profile for each customer can be found by utilizing the hourly consumption of median. In the feature extraction stage, six features that can explain the customer’s daily usage patterns are extracted from the representative load profile. Korean residential load profiles are clustered into four groups using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) with Bayesian information criterion (BIC), which helps find the optimal number of groups, in the clustering stage. Furthermore, a choice experiment (CE) is performed to identify Korean residential customers’ preferences for TOU with selected attributes. A mixed logit model with a Bayesian approach is used to estimate each group’s customer preference for attributes of a time-of-use (TOU) tariff. Finally, a TOU tariff for each group’s load profile is recommended using the estimated part-worth.

<span>A price-based program through a time of use tariff (TOU) program is one of the initiatives to offer sufficient benefit for both consumers and generations sides. However, without any strategy for implementing optimal load management, a new tariff design structure will lead to the miss perception by electricity consumers. Therefore, this study offers an investigation toward appropriate TOU tariff design to reflect load profiles. Concurrently, the ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm was proposed to deal with the load shifting strategy to determine the best load profiles and reducing the consumers’ electricity cost. The sample load profiles data is obtained from various residential houses, such as single-story, double-story, semi-D, apartment, and bungalow houses. The significant comparison between baseline flat tariffs to several TOU tariffs has shown an improvement in the percentage of cost saving for approximately 7 to 40%. Furthermore, the identified load management was observed where the maximum load shifting weightage was set up to 30% to reflect the consumers’ effort towards energy efficiency (EE) program. The previously proposed TOU design was identified to be a suitable structure that can promote balancing of EE and demand response (DR) program effort in most consumers' houses category in Malaysia.</span>

Abstract This paper proposes a dynamic time-of-use (d-TOU) tariff scheme for microgrid (MG) systems in islanded mode. The main problem for the islanded MG is the high cost of electricity, and the output from renewable energy is uncontrollable compared to the traditional grid. Therefore, this paper focuses on developing a suitable tariff scheme that provides reliability and financial benefits for both utility and customer. The time zone energy prices based on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) are introduced for islanded MG. The results show a contradiction between islanded MG with the standard traditional power generation TOU. Even though the LCOE obtained for MG is higher than conventional electricity rates, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rate is reduced by 85%. In conclusion, the proposed d-TOU tariff scheme is suitable for the islanded MG system and it is beneficial for both the utility and the customer by not causing a financial burden to the utility and encouraging the customer to make a demand response in the future.

Jeju Island announced the “Carbon Free Island (CFI) Plan by 2030” in 2012. This plan aims to replace conventional generators with distributed energy resources (DERs) up to a level of 70% by 2030. Akin to Jeju Island, as DERs have been expanded in islanded power systems, variable renewable energy (VRE) has become a significant component of DERs. However, VRE curtailment can occur to meet power balance, and VRE curtailment generally causes energy waste and low efficiency, so it should be minimized. This paper first presents a systematic procedure for estimating the annual VRE curtailment for the stable operation of the islanded power systems. In this procedure, the VRE curtailment is estimated based on the power demand, the grid interconnection, the capacity factor of VRE, and conventional generators in the base year. Next, through the analysis of the hourly net load profile for the year in which the VRE curtailment is expected to occur, a procedure was proposed to find the season and hour when VRE curtailment occurs the most. It could be applied to revised Time-of-Use (ToU) tariff rates as the most cost-effective mitigation method of VRE curtailment on the retail market-side. Finally, price elasticity of electricity demand was presented for applying the revised ToU tariff rate scenarios in a specific season and hour, which found that VRE curtailment occurred the most. Considering self- and cross-price elasticity of electricity, revised ToU tariff rate scenarios were used in a case study on Jeju Island. Eventually, it was confirmed that VRE curtailment could be mitigated when the revised ToU tariff rates were applied, considering the price elasticity of demand.