Relative kW Response to Residential Time-Varying Pricing in British Columbia

We apply graphical exploration and regression analysis to estimate 1717 participants' relative kW responses in BC Hydro's residential TOU/CPP pilot study. We define a customer's relative kW response as the percentage change in the customer's hourly kW demand due to exposure to time-varying pricing. Compared to the control group of customers facing non-TOU rates, we find that TOU pricing yields a statistically-significant evening peak kW decrease of 4-11%, after controlling for the effects of day of the week, month of the year, weather, customer location, and customer size. CPP produces an additional peak kW reduction of about 9%, which can be further increased to about 33% through remotely-activated load control of space and water heaters. Hence, a scheme of TOU pricing augmented with CPP and load control on system peak days can be a highly effective demand-response strategy for winter-peaking utilities.