Peak load tariff

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The term peak load tariffing describes a pricing technique in which the costs of the capacity are passed on to the customers during the peak load period.

Peak load tariffs are used in industries whose products or services cannot be stored or stored and whose demand keeps rising and falling on a daily, monthly or annual basis. These include the areas of telecommunications , aviation , transport and the electricity industry . For example, the energy demand is higher during the day than at night, or the load on air traffic is particularly high in the summer months and around the Christmas holidays. Companies in these industries have specific strategies to deal with these peak times.

The aim of pricing in terms of peak load tariffs is to find out what the ideal prices are for the respective service and how high the capacity or production of this must be in order to obtain an optimal result in terms of welfare optimization.

The most popular model of peak load tariffing comes from Peter O. Steiner and was published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics in 1957 . Steiner stated that the aim was to maximize the welfare of the national economy in a peak-load industry. The welfare W is made up of the sum of the income TR plus the consumer surplus S, minus the production costs TC (W = TR + S - TC). Steiner continues to assume two periods of equal length, for example day and night, in which production or supply remains the same. The task now is to find the optimal production volume and the corresponding prices for both periods. It assumes that the demand fluctuates strongly, the quantities are known and the demand is higher in period two at any price. Steiner's model, although much quoted, is, however, severely limited in its application due to these facts.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peak-load pricing. Research Information System for Mobility and Transport (FIS), August 22, 2017, accessed on January 27, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Cf. Schlick, Stephan: Unbundling Adjusted Plant Management of Supply Networks: A Theoretical-Conceptual and Empirical Investigation Using the Example of Gas Supply in Germany. Lit Verlag, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3825807351
  3. ↑ Steiner, Peter O .: Peak Loads and Efficient Pricing. In: The Quarterly Journal of Economics (1957) 71 (4): pp. 585-610. doi : 10.2307 / 1885712

literature

Borrmann, Jörg and Finsinger, Jörg: Market and Regulation. Vahlen Verlag, Munich 1999. ISBN 978-3800624713