Observed Temperature Effects on Hourly Residential Electric LoadReduction in Response to an Experimental Critical Peak PricingTariff

The goal of this investigation was to characterize themanual and automated response of residential customers to high-price"critical" events dispatched under critical peak pricing tariffs testedin the 2003-2004 California Statewide Pricing Pilot. The 15-monthexperimental tariff gave customers a discounted two-price time-of-userate on 430 days in exchange for 27 critical days, during which the peakperiod price (2 p.m. to 7 p.m.) was increased to about three times thenormal time-of-use peak price. We calculated response by five-degreetemperature bins as the difference between peak usage on normal andcritical weekdays. Results indicatedthat manual response to criticalperiods reached -0.23 kW per home (-13 percent) in hot weather(95-104.9oF), -0.03 kW per home (-4 percent) in mild weather (60-94.9oF),and -0.07 kW per home (-9 percent) during cold weather (50-59.9oF).Separately, we analyzed response enhanced by programmable communicatingthermostats in high-use homes with air-conditioning. Between 90oF and94.9oF, the response of this group reached -0.56 kW per home (-25percent) for five-hour critical periods and -0.89 kW/home (-41 percent)for two-hour critical periods.