Review of dynamic pricing programs in the U.S. and Europe: Status quo and policy recommendations

With the development of demand response (DR) technologies and increasing electricity demand, dynamic pricing has been a popular topic in many countries. This paper evaluates various dynamic pricing programs in the U.S. and Europe, and provides insights into various aspects including risks and rewards, enabling technologies, lower-income groups and customer types surrounding programs such as Time-of-Use (TOU), Critical Peak Pricing (CPP), Peak Time Rebates (PTR) and Real Time Pricing (RTP). We conclude this paper with three main findings: (1) policy coordination in promoting dynamic pricing programs between federal and state regulatory agencies is very critical; (2) customer engagement is very important and can be enhanced via more accessible educational programs and policy adjustments; and (3) more investment in related R&D is required to construct a commonly accepted methodology for measuring the effectiveness of dynamic pricing programs.