经济学人下载:能源定价 远程控制

Pricing energy
能源定价

Remote controls
远程控制

Smart meters promise another reason to resent energy firms
智能电表成为人们抱怨能源公司的又一理由

The midnight oil
午夜石油乐队

GOOD neighbours avoid doing laundry in the small hours. Yet householders in the north east of England are growing keener on late-night loads. Watched by academics at Durham University, volunteers are testing a tariff that makes power more expensive when demand is high. Some use washing machines that run only when energy is cheap.
好邻居不在凌晨洗衣服。然而在英格兰东北部的居民们越来越热衷于在午夜干家务。英国杜伦大学的学者观察发现，志愿者接受了一项测试：税费调整后，电力在需求高峰期变得更贵。有的居民只有在电价便宜时才会用洗衣机。

Britons are used to paying variable prices for hotel rooms, train tickets and telephone calls. Now some hope that smart electricity meters, which the government wants installed in every home by 2020, will help energy suppliers charge in a similar way. Boosters say dynamic pricing can hold down bills and help save the planet. It is also likely to make power firms even less popular than they already are.
英国人习惯于为宾馆、火车票和话费的浮动费用掏钱。如今，更有人希望智能电表可以帮助能源供应商以也以同样的方式收费。支持者们表示动态电价可以降低账单，并有益于节约地球资源。这样很有可能使电力公司更加不受欢迎。

Flexible pricing is supposed to discourage power use at peak times, thereby bringing down the overall cost of generation by cutting the need for power stations that run only a few hours each day. Controlling energy use would also help network operators handle fluctuations in renewable power, which rises and falls depending on how windy or sunny it is. These problems will get more serious as Britain decarbonises: using more green electricity to power things such as cars and heating will make demand spikes bigger—and thus more costly—just as growth in renewables makes supply less dependable.
弹性价格有望降低高峰期的用电，从而通过减少每天运行几小时的发电站数量来降低发电总成本。通过电力控制使用可以帮助网络操作者来处理可再生能源诸如由于风能或者太阳能造成的波动。这些问题将变得和英国降低碳含量计划同等严峻：使用更多绿色电力来驱动像车或者加热器的东西，将使得需求峰值更大——而且代价更昂贵——正如可再生能源使用的增长降低了供给的可靠性。

Some Britons have been using cheaper off-peak power since the late 1970s, when “Economy 7” tariffs were created to encourage overnight demand for juice from nuclear power stations. Smart meters, which will add about ￡12 billion ($20 billion) to energy bills as they are rolled out over the next five years, are meant to save suppliers money by wirelessly transmitting meter readings, and to provide households with information that can help them to use less power. What excites energy experts is that, by recording full details of energy consumption, they could also make it easier for suppliers to create several peak and off-peak periods during each day, or even let prices float freely depending on the weather. Last month Ofgem, the energy regulator, said it was mulling reforms that could enable rates to change every half-hour.
一些英国人自二十世纪七十年代晚期就开始错开高峰期使用低价电力，当时建立“经济七号”税费的目的就是为鼓励使用来自核电厂的通宵供电。智能电表通过无线传输仪表读数，这意味着可以为供应商节约费用，并且为居民们提供相应的信息来帮助他们节约用电，这项计划在未来五年内推出后将增加一百二十亿英镑的电费收入。让能源专家们感到兴奋的是，通过能源消费的所有详细记录，他们可以让能源供应商很轻松的在每天建立多个高峰或者非高峰期，甚至可以让电价随着天气的变化过渡平稳。上个月，作为能源调节者的天然气电力市场办公室表示，正在考虑这样一些改革——这可以让电价在每半小时内变化。

The problem is that a proliferation of complex tariffs risks making it more difficult for bill-payers to identify the cheapest ones, even as regulators battle to simplify the market. Critics also say that punitive charges at peak times could affect the poorest families disproportionately, because they already use power only when it is essential. And some fear that, without stronger competition, energy firms would use dynamic tariffs to raise prices, not just to even out demand.
出现的问题是，这种复杂的收费方式所冒的风险在于，支付者辨别最便宜的收费区间更为困难，虽则电力调配部门志在简化市场，正如电力调配部门志在简化市场一样。评论家们也声称，用电高峰期的惩罚性的收费会给最贫困的家庭造成影响更为巨大，因为他们只有在必要时才会使用电能。时一些人也担心到，没有强有力的竞争，能源公司只是利用动态电价来变向涨价而并非平衡需求。

The biggest worry is that people will not be persuaded to change their routines. Many already pay too much for their energy because they have never bothered to switch supplier. A study in 2012 by Consumer Focus—now part of the Citizens Advice Bureau—found that 38% of households with Economy 7 or similar tariffs did not use enough off-peak power to make it cheaper than a standard rate. Trials of more dynamic tariffs report mixed success—and almost all of those have involved green-minded volunteers, not busy families.
最大的担心是，劝服人们调整日常生活习惯很难。很多人嫌麻烦从不更换供应商，导致他们已经支付了太多的电力。由聚焦消费（现在是公民建议局的下属单位）在2012年出示的调查显示，百分之三十八的“经济七”或者与之相似收费的住户没有使用错开高峰用电来降低电费。而这其中更为动态税费适用成功的报道显得复杂——这其中多数是绿色理念的志愿者，而不是那些忙碌的家庭。

Enthusiasts say variable pricing will work best when people can set gear such as freezers, boilers and air-conditioners to respond automatically to pricing signals broadcast to their smart meter, in exchange for a discount from their supplier. Fridges need not run constantly to keep their contents fresh, for example; clever ones might perhaps turn themselves off during peak demand periods.
狂热支持者表示，当人们可以通过智能电表的价格广播来自动设置诸如冰箱，热水器和空调速率，可使得可变定价完美运行，以此从供应商那里获得折扣。例如，冰箱无需一直工作来维持里面东西的新鲜；聪明人也许会错开高峰阶段。

Yet bill-payers will probably find it creepy to hand outsiders control of their appliances. A household full of smart devices would delight hackers. And it will bring chewy legal problems, such as working out who to blame should faulty appliances churn through premium-priced power. As Britain’s smart grid expands, rumbling washing machines may not be the only thing keeping people awake.
然而，用户们肯定会发现把他们的家用电器交由外部控制是很恐怖的一件事。一个家里满是智能电器的用户会使黑客感到异常兴奋。而且这样会带来一系列耐人寻味的法律问题，例如，因为电流的变动导致电器发生缺陷时无法确定谁该为此负责。随着英国智能电网的不断扩大，也许不只是隆隆的洗衣机声吵得人无法入睡。