Modeling the Impacts of Disruptive Technologies and Pricing on Electricity Consumption

This chapter examines scenarios for rapid uptake of new distributed energy resources and energy storage, and explores a hypothesis that adoption of residential “network tariffs” will reduce the distortional effects of volume-based tariffs on residential energy consumption patterns. The modeling methodology examines annual electricity consumption for specific dwelling types in Townsville in Northern Queensland, Australia, using network-based tariffs, feed-in-tariffs and time-of-use rates for solar photovoltaic generation, and battery storage. The analysis demonstrates that electricity consumption could drop by more than 10% in the next decade. The scenario results demonstrate that cost-reflective tariffs can improve network utilization, and potentially put downward pressure on retail prices.