Rate Design & Evaluation

Efficiency & Load Flexibility

Promoting effective deployment of energy efficiency, end-use electrification, and demand flexibility

Rate Design & Evaluation

We seek to better understand how utility rates and rate design affect the economics of technology adoption and utilization to benefit ratepayers, utilities, and society.

Retail electricity pricing is evolving in the context of broader shifts in how electricity customers pay for grid services and receive compensation for changing the timing of electricity consumption or deploying customer-sited generation. Retail rate designs are also shaped by a range of considerations and stakeholder perspectives that utility regulators must balance when establishing utility rate structures.

EMP’s research explores novel retail rate designs intended to drive greater technology adoption, advance system economic efficiency, and improve system planning and operations. Our work also evaluates the alignment of retail rate designs with policy goals and objectives. Recent highlights include a primer on and survey of electric vehicle retail rate designs, including temporal and locational rate specifics. Recent research has also sought to better understand how different types of customers adopt and respond to alternative rate designs, with and without the use of various enabling technologies.

Selected Projects


Get in touch
Peter Cappers
Strategic Advisor
Andrew Satchwell
Deputy

Recent Publications

Miller, Cesca, Andrew Satchwell, and Jenya Kahn-Lang."The Customer Bill Impacts of Efficient Building Electrification."2024 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (2024).
Gerke, Brian F, Marius Stübs, Samanvitha Murthy, Aditya Khandekar, Peter Cappers, Richard E Brown, and Mary Ann Piette."Potential bill impacts of dynamic electricity pricing on California utility customers." (2024). DOI
Carvallo, Juan Pablo, and Lisa C Schwartz."The use of price-based demand response as a resource in electricity system planning." (2023).
Cappers, Peter, Andrew Satchwell, Cameron Brooks, and Sam Kozel."A Snapshot of EV-Specific Rate Designs Among U.S. Investor-Owned Electric Utilities." (2023).
Cappers, Peter, and Andrew Satchwell."EVGrid Assist Webinar: Electric Vehicle Rates and Incentives." (2022).
Cappers, Peter, and Andrew Satchwell."EV Retail Rate Design 101." (2022).
Cappers, Peter, and Annika Todd-Blick."Heterogeneity in Own-Price Residential Customer Demand Elasticities for Electricity under Time-of-Use Rates: Evidence from a Randomized-Control Trial in the United States."Utilities Policy (2021).
Cappers, Peter, Sydney Forrester, and Andrew Satchwell."Disaggregating Future Retail Electricity Rate Growth." (2021).
Fowlie, Meredith, Catherine Wolfram, Patrick Baylis, C Anna Spurlock, Annika Todd-Blick, and Peter Cappers."Default Effects and Follow-On Behaviour: Evidence From an Electricity Pricing Program."The Review of Economic Studies 88.6 (2021) 2886–2934. DOI
Todd-Blick, Annika, C Anna Spurlock, Ling Jin, Peter Cappers, Sam Borgeson, Daniel Fredman, and Jarett Zuboy."Winners are not keepers: Characterizing household engagement, gains, and energy patterns in demand response using machine learning in the United States."Energy Research & Social Science 70 (2020). DOI
See More
The Cost of Saving Electricity Through Energy Efficiency Programs Funded by Customers of Investor-Owned Utilities
The Cost of Saving Electricity Through Energy Efficiency Programs Funded by Customers of Investor-Owned Utilities
Webinar cover slide screenshot
The use of price-based demand response as a resource in electricity system planning
A Snapshot of EV-Specific Rate Designs Among U.S. Investor-Owned Electric Utilities
A Snapshot of EV-Specific Rate Designs Among U.S. Investor-Owned Electric Utilities
A Handbook for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Successful Electric Utility Pilots
A Handbook for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Successful Electric Utility Pilots