The distributional impacts of residential demand charges

Demand charges have recently emerged as an important feature in many proposals to reform residential electricity rates. Relying on load and income data for more than 1,000 utility customers, the authors provide an assessment of the impact this rate design could have on residential customer bills and examine the potential for home energy storage to enhance bill savings. One encouraging finding: demand charges do not disproportionately impact low-income customers relative to the rest of the sample.