Design of time‐of‐use rate periods for a utility
用聚类分析方法为美国一家大型电力公司划分峰谷时段，设计了分时电价方案，并给出了冬季和夏季的具体峰谷时段，对电力公司定价和用户选择有参考价值。
Abstract Electric utilities are turning to the time‐of‐use rate structure as a solution to the pricing dilemma they face. Charging relatively higher prices for peak usage and lower prices for offpeak usage provides the correct pricing signal to the consumer and promotes a more efficient utilization of the utility. Though this rate form has been successfully used in Europe for over 25 years, there has not been much experience with it in this country. An important aspect of time‐of‐use rate design is the determination of peak and offpeak hours of the day. This paper uses cluster analysis to delineate the appropriate hours for rate design. Utilities build expensive base loads plants to provide large amounts of cheap energy and less capital intensive peaking plants with high operating costs to meet short term emergency requirements leading to higher average total costs as more power is generated. The procedure presented, therefore, groups loads into rating periods such that peak periods contain large loads and offpeak periods contain low loads. The methodology is applied to the determination of time‐of‐use rating period hours for a large electric utility in the U.S. Since the optimal grouping with four seasons and three time‐of‐use periods was judged to be not feasible, a “practical best” solution was developed by modifying it appropriately. The utility set the peak hours for winter months (October to April) as 6 a.m. to 12 noon and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and summer (May to September) peak hours as 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with weekends and major holidays being considered offpeak. The time‐of‐use rate structure has been implemented for commercial and industrial consumers on an experimental basis. A consumer opting for the new structure will be monitored using both structures and billed for the lower amount.