During a discussion of the nexus of government and the energy industry at the USAEE/IAEE North American Conference in Anchorage, Alaska last week, Branko Terzic, Executive Director of the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions, pointed out that the average American does not know the cost of electricity. He suggested that a focus on greater transparency in consumer electricity pricing could help the power generation sector to manage some of its load problems by giving people the knowledge they need to evaluate their consumption costs.

“People know the price of gasoline…That’s the only one that you see. They don’t know the price of electricity or the price of natural gas.”

“That’s one of the advantages that you will have with Smart Meters, which really need Smart Tariffs. When you make the presentation of the cost-benefit analysis, many of the benefits of Smart Meters can only come if you have real-time pricing and other benefits of the economic knowledge of the pricing that’s out there.”

“A lot of American problems in the electric field could be solved with simple, straight fixed-variable rate design. And nowhere would the fixed rate be the equivalent of an iPhone, it would not be the equivalent of your cable bill.”