As electric utilities look at how to move beyond traditional rate design, this report examines the benefits and challenges of moving to a time of use structure. An introduction reviews the latest findings on different time-varying rate structures, and then two public power utilities – Fort Collins Utilities in Colorado and Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California – share their experience in first piloting and then rolling out default time-of-use plans to residential customers.
Each utility reflects on how the change has helped it to reach specific goals – from achieving rate equity to reducing or modifying peak load – and shares what makes for effective communication about time-varying rates.