A SUITABLE METHOD FOR UTILITY PRICING

Electicity is distinguished from other commondities by the wide variability of its demand through time and the virtual impossibility of its storage. Consequently, the entire generation, transmission and distribution chain must make possible the permanent adaptation between electricity supply and demand, particularly during demand peaks. Load management requires the implementation of incentive tariffs which, by using the sensitivity of demand to prices, makes it possible to act on the overall load curve of the power system. The most sophisticated tariff system that could be set up would consist in indicating to our customers at each moment the instantaneous marginal cost of the power system by " spot pricing", in a ture market place atmosphere lineed with consumers, load management schemes, spot pricing should make for lower electricity production costs.