Effects of Electric Utility Decoupling on Energy Efficiency
研究了电力公用事业收入脱钩如何影响能效投资和居民用电量，发现脱钩结合股东激励能增加需求侧管理投资并降低用电量。
Most economists agree that revenue decoupling eliminates utilities’ incentives to encourage overconsumption of energy, but critics argue that decoupled utilities have no incentive to promote energy efficiency. This paper models the repeated game between regulator and utility and shows that decoupled utilities have greater equilibrium utility demand-side management (DSM) investment in the presence of DSM-related shareholder incentives. It then shows empirically that decoupling is historically associated with significant residential electricity consumption reductions, augmented DSM spending levels, and increased DSM investment efficacy.