peak-load pricing

the principle of charging higher PRICES for certain products (that cannot be stored) at times of peak demand to reflect the higher MARGINAL COSTS of supplying products at peak times. Peak-load pricing is designed to encourage consumers to spread their demand more evenly so as to avoid the need to invest in plant that is then grossly underutilized at off-peak times. Peak-load pricing is used in electricity supply, railways, etc., using multipart tariffs.

See TWO-PART TARIFF.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

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two-part tariff

References in periodicals archive ?

Consequently, we conclude that there is a sound economic rationale for introducing some form of peak-load pricing into the system operator's optimizing criterion.

The Economic Value of Distributed Storage at Different Locations on an Electric Grid

Berg, "Peak-load pricing in duopoly," Economic Modelling, vol.

A TOU Pricing Mechanism to Promote Renewable Energy Consumption: The Case of the Western Inner Mongolia Grid in China

The study emphasises the need to re-examine the tariff structure, including the use of subsidies and variable peak-load pricing, and assess whether it is flexible enough for the private sector to sell electricity to the national grid on a commercially viable basis.

Strategic food reserve management system

This is MacAvoy's version of the peak-load pricing problem that is frequently examined in the electricity literature.

Job half-finished

Matching price to variations in market conditions--for example, peak-load pricing.

Crystal clearance: one of the most obvious effects of the single currency has been to increase price transparency in the eurozone. Although this has been good news for consumers, it has forced many businesses to rethink their pricing strategies. Gavin Reid and Julia Smith explain some of the new approaches. (EU Price Transparency)

We start with the algebraic example that ties this new rationale for price maintenance to the phenomenon known as peak-load pricing and that is also the basis for some other points.

DEMAND UNCERTAINTY AND RESALE PRICE MAINTENANCE

The economic literature on peak-load pricing, management, fuel-switching, alternative fuel sources, and related issues is so extensive that we can only hope to list a few works, including those by Steiner (1957), Panzar and Sibley (1978), Crew and Kleindorfer (1978), Hamlen and Tschirhart (1980), Brown and Sibley (1986), and Phillips (1988).(10) We also recognize the growing literature on real time pricing and other pricing innovations being emphasized in the face of the current trend towards deregulation of wholesale bulk power and retail markets.(11) However, the price of electricity generated at federally owned hydropower facilities is limited to the recovery of actual costs and is not adjusted to reflect market conditions.

Optimal provision of hydroelectric power under environmental and regulatory constraints

Also, the conversion from uniform pricing to peak-load pricing may work in reducing the price of the service (Bergstrom and MacKie-Mason, 1991).

Regulatory capture and the price of electricity: evidence from time series estimates

Downs is most attracted to "peak-load pricing", which attempts to equate the private marginal cost of driving to the social marginal cost, by increasing the cost of driving during rush-hour.

Stuck in Traffic

He brought Gordes and another local conservation specialist over there to do energy audits of local businesses and to brief local utility officials on peak-load pricing and similar strategies.

The stupidity of free-market chic ... in Eastern Europe; how American economics is hurting Polish capitalism

Next, Crew and Kleindorfer examine the issue of peak-load pricing. The regulatory pricing scheme must account for a demand that is not uniform throughout a time period.