A Linear Pricing Mechanism for Load Management in Day-Ahead Retail Energy Markets

Regulators and utilities have been exploring hourly retail electricity pricing, with several existing programs providing day-ahead hourly pricing schedules. At the same time, customers are deploying distributed energy resources and smart energy management systems that have significant flexibility and can optimally follow price signals. In aggregate, these optimally controlled loads can create congestion management issues for distribution system operators (DSOs). In this paper, we describe a new linear pricing mechanism for day-ahead retail electricity pricing that provides a signal for customers to follow to mitigate over-consumption while still consuming energy at hours that are preferential for system performance. We show that by broadcasting a linear price designed for price-signal control of cost-optimizing loads, we can shape customer load profiles to provide congestion management without the need for bi-directional communication or customer bidding programs.