The economic efficiency impacts of alternatives for revenue reconciliation

About a dozen electric utilities in the US offer rates that possess real-time characteristics. In these implementations the real-time prices are updated at half-hourly or hourly intervals and in no case are the prices spatially differentiated. The implemented rates are based upon marginal generating costs with markups to account for system transmission and distribution costs or other revenue reconciliation needs. This paper analyzes how great is the impact of alternative price markup methods on measures of social welfare and the time pattern of real-time prices. A case study and sensitivity results are also presented.