Price-based demand side management: Assessing the impacts of time-of-use tariffs on residential electricity demand and peak shifting in Northern Italy

One of the most common demand side management programs consists of time-of-use (TOU) tariffs, where consumers are charged differently depending on the time of the day when they make use of energy services. This paper assesses the impacts of TOU tariffs on a dataset of residential users from the Province of Trento in Northern Italy in terms of changes in electricity demand, price savings, peak load shifting and peak electricity demand at sub-station level. Findings highlight that TOU tariffs bring about higher average electricity consumption and lower payments by consumers. A significant level of load shifting takes place for morning peaks. However, issues with evening peaks are not resolved. Finally, TOU tariffs lead to increases in electricity demand for substations at peak time.

► 1,099,839,168 quarter hour readings were downloaded from 1446 smart meters in the Trentino Province, Northern Italy.
► Following the introduction of TOU tariffs consumption increased by 13.69%.
► Consumers' electricity bills decreased by 2.21%.
► Peak load shifting took place for morning peaks and created a split in two peaks for evening periods.
► The majority of substations (75.6%) experienced an increase in electricity demand during peak periods.