The Brattle Study in Grid of the Future

thinksabout rate reform in terms of the need to

make rates time-varying in order to unlock

demand flexibility capacity.

How do we tie in the problem of
unfair rates (cross-subsidization)?

...and our other policy goals of
affordability and electrification?

In other words: it's not just that if we're going to reform rates, we should also make them fair to tackle our separate goals of affordability and electrification.

It's that if we want demand flexibility capacity, we have to make rates fair—not just time-varying—or we'll never get the electrification we need to provide that capacity in the first place.

And, for completeness, it's also good to mention that by making EVs (and maybe HPs?) cheaper to operate, time-varying rates would not just directly unlock demand flexibility potential, but would help realize the underlying capacity in the first place by improving affordability and thus driving electrification.