The Demand for Electricity: A Survey

Abstract

This paper presents a survey and critique of the econometric literature on the demand for electricity. Most of the focus is on residential demand, but the few studies analyzing commercial and industrial demand are also reviewed. Special attention is given to the singular features of electricity demand, the fact that electricity is purchased according to multipart decreasing block tariffs, the need to distinguish between demand in the short run and demand in the long run, etc. In particular it is noted that proper modeling of decreasing block tariffs requires inclusion of both a marginal and average price as predictors in the demand function. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research.