Time-based electricity pricing for large-volume customers: A comparison of two buildings under tariff alternatives

•Commercial uniform-rate & time-based pricing policies of three utilities analyzed.•Comparisons made from two case studies, representing actual buildings.•Consumption shifting measures produce more savings under time-based pricing.•Both consumption-shifting & curtailment measures available in CPP & RTP pricing.•Time-based pricing does not decrease importance of energy conservation.

This study investigates a variety of pricing policies for commercial and industrial customer sectors. Two building examples were used to analyze energy usage by buildings under the uniform-rate and time-based pricing schedules of three electricity utilities. Critical-peak and real-time price signals encourage building managers to implement the greatest number of measures to reduce their electricity costs. Consumption-shifting and curtailment measures that take into account time-based electricity prices do not appear to reduce energy usage and costs as much as regular energy-efficiency measures. Nonetheless, expanding the focus of energy management to include measures based on time-based pricing can help reduce electricity costs for commercial and industrial buildings.