Electric Vehicles and the Energy Transition: Unintended Consequences of a Common Retail Rate Design

Megan Bailey (), David Brown, Erica Myers, Blake Shaffer and Frank A. Wolak ()
Additional contact information
Megan Bailey: University of Calgary
Frank A. Wolak: Stanford University

No 2024-4, Working Papers from University of Alberta, Department of Economics

Abstract: The growth of electric vehicles (EVs) raises new challenges for electricity systems. We implement a field experiment to assess the effect of time-of-use (TOU) pricing and managed charging on EV charging behavior. We find that while TOU pricing is effective at shifting EV charging into off-peak hours, it unintentionally induces new and larger “shadow peaks” of simultaneous charging. These shadow peaks lead to greater exceedance of local capacity constraints and advance the need for distribution network upgrades. In contrast, centrally managed charging solves the coordination problem, reducing transformer capacity requirements, and is well-tolerated by consumers in our setting.

Keywords: Electric Vehicles; Regulation; Rate Design; Field Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L94 Q41 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2024-09-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des, nep-ene, nep-exp, nep-ind, nep-reg and nep-tre
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Electric Vehicles and the Energy Transition: Unintended Consequences of a Common Retail Rate Design (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:albaec:2024_004

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