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Time-based rate programs 1 , enabled by utility investments in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), are increasingly being considered by utilities as tools to reduce peak demand and enable customers to better manage consumption and costs. There are several customer systems that are relatively new to the marketplace and have the potential for improving the effectiveness of these programs, including in-home displays (IHDs), programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs), and web portals. Policy and decision makers are interested in more information about customer acceptance, retention, and response before moving forward with expanded deployments of AMI-enabled new rates and technologies. volunteers. We observed benefit-cost ratios greater than 2.0 for opt-out and between 0.7 and 2.0 for opt-in, depending on rate and technology combination. 4 Prices versus Rebates-Effects of CPP and CPR The behavioral science theory of loss aversion states that when people are presented with a choice that involves the potential of either avoiding a loss or acquiring a gain, the strong preference is to avoid the loss rather than to acquire the gain. As a result, one would expect that customers would be more likely to enroll in and remain on CPR than CPP. The perceived risk of receiving higher bills from under performance during critical events under CPP is greater than under CPR, and this could be a motivating factor that decreases enrollment and retention for CPP. However, once customers are on a rate, because the risk of potential loss from CPP is more salient than the potential gain from CPR, customers are expected to respond more to CPP. Results from the CBS utilities support this theory as retention rates were higher for CPR (89%) than for CPP (80%) and demand reductions were generally higher for CPP (21%) than for CPR (11%), whereas the variability in average demand reductions across events was less for CPP than it was for CPR. However, when PCTs were available as an automated control strategy, the differences in average peak demand reductions between CPP and CPR were largely eliminated. This suggests that regardless of the financial incentive to respond (i.e., acquiring a gain via a rebate or avoiding a loss via pricing), PCTs can be an effective tool to mitigate a customer's loss aversion by allowing them to automate their response during the critical peak events.

Sustainable energy, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy, Urban transport,

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