The Long-Run Efficiency of Real-Time Electricity Pricing
研究了竞争性电力市场中采用实时电价（RTP）的长期效率收益，通过模拟表明即使需求弹性很小，效率收益也显著，而分时电价只能捕获其中很小一部分。
Retail real-time pricing (RTP) of electricity -- retail pricing that changes hourly to reflect the changing supply/demand balance -- is very appealing to economists because it sends the right price signals. Economic efficiency gains from RTP, however, are often confused with the short-term wealth transfers from producers to consumers that RTP can create. Abstracting from transfers, I focus on the long-run efficiency gains from adopting RTP in a competitive electricity market. Using simple simulations with realistic parameters, I demonstrate that the magnitude of efficiency gains from RTP is likely to be significant even if demand shows very little elasticity. I also show that time-of-use pricing, a simple peak and off-peak pricing system, is likely to capture a very small share of the efficiency gains that RTP offers.