TY  - JOUR
AU  - Holland,Stephen P.
AU  - Mansur,Erin T.
TI  - Is Real-Time Pricing Green? The Environmental Impacts of Electricity Demand Variance
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13508
PY  - 2007
Y2  - October 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13508
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13508.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Stephen P. Holland
Bryan School of Business and Economics
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
P.O. Box 26165
Greensboro, NC 27402-6165
Tel: 336/334-4925
Fax: 336/334-4089
E-Mail: sphollan@uncg.edu

Erin T. Mansur
Dartmouth College
6106 Rockefeller Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: (603) 646-2531
Fax: (603) 646-2122
E-Mail: erin.mansur@dartmouth.edu
AB  - Real-time pricing (RTP) of electricity would improve allocative efficiency and limit wholesalers' market power. Conventional wisdom claims that RTP provides additional environmental benefits. This paper argues that RTP will reduce the variance, both within- and across-days, in the quantity of electricity demanded. We estimate the short-run impacts of this reduction on SO2, NOx, and CO2 emissions. Reducing variance decreases emissions in regions where peak demand is met more by oil-fired capacity than by hydropower, such as the Mid-Atlantic. However, reducing variance increases emissions in more US regions, namely those with more hydropower like the West. The effects are relatively small.
ER  -