Will electricity demand keep on increasing while prices are rising? (A few days ago I posted on a study done by the University of Pretoria showing a substantial reduction in electricity demanded when prices double)
Eskom seems to think that they can have both raising prices and raising demand as evident from their Proposed Revenue Application. Quoted from the document (p 30, for simplicity I am only showing the low sales scenario here):
The sales forecast for the next 10 years has some downside risk (i.e., lower sales) based on the
depth and length of the economic slowdown especially for the first 2 years.
Low
(GWh) % Growth
2010/11 220,260 1.0%
2011/12 224,737 2.0%
2012/13 232,388 3.4%
2013/14 239,536 3.1%
2014/15 248,621 3.8%
2015/16 258,921 4.1%
2016/17 265,399 2.5%
2017/18 271,946 2.5%
2018/19 279,163 2.7%
2019/20 286,388 2.6%
Economic theory says that as electricity prices rise the quantity of electricity demanded will fall, holding other factors constant. The percentage change in quantity demanded in relation to the the percentage change in price is called the price elasticity of demand.
Electricity demand traditionally was relatively inelastic to price which basically means that the rate at which demand slowed down was much less then the rate at what prices increased. There are many different price elasticities for different regions and sectors, but it seems that most tend to converge around a range of -0.2 to -0.7. That means that a 1% increase in price would lead to between 0.2 to 0.7% reduction in demand. There are also signs, at least in the US economy, that price elasticity of electricity is increasing.
This raises questions on the assumptions used in the utility's modelling as well as more serious implications of this modelling and the practical need to entrench market power from the utility's perspective. Will customers be freely allowed to respond to raising electricity prices even if it reduces the demand and thus the sales of the utility? Looking at Eskom's modelling assumptions I am not convinced.
(But then, we need to be sure that all substitutes for Eskom electricity are factored in (what substitutes?), and that the powering forces of raising incomes in South Africa will dwarf the increases in price (really?)).
See, I am still not convinced.
1 comment:
We've long known that the only way to reduce the consumption of anything - electricity, water, commodities - is for prices to rise. In the case of electricity, this is now happening.
But the real conundrum to me is that governments, bankers and businesses all over the world - who pay lip service to the need to reduce carbon emissions, traffic, etc. - are urging us to buy more of everything and spend our way out of recession ...
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