Why Voluntary Time-of-Use Tariffs Struggle to Penetrate the Residential Electricity Sector

Abstract

The uptake of voluntary time-of-use tariffs remains sluggish among residential consumers despite its benefits to society as well as private utilities. In this paper, we investigate how heterogeneity in consumer use-preferences complicates the problem of designing a voluntary time-of-use scheme, resulting in a socially sub-optimal level of deployment.