Economic inefficiency can be caused by time-invariant retail electricity prices because they do not reflect variations in the cost of providing electricity during a day. Time-of-use (TOU) pricing, which has higher energy prices during on-peak hours and lower energy prices during off-peak hours, is by far the most common way to achieve more efficient levels of electricity consumption through reducing peak demand. The empirical evidence of the effectiveness of TOU pricing is sparse in the commercial and industrial sectors and there is no consensus in the literature on the statistical significance and magnitude of the effects. Applying a quasi-experimental design, this study evaluates an ongoing experimental voluntary business TOU pricing plan of a major utility company in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Using the nearest neighbor matching method, we identify control customers for the voluntary participants of the business TOU pricing. From difference-in-differences analysis, we find a statistically significant shift in demand from on-peak hours to off-peak hours during business hours in response to the TOU pricing. We also find that there is no conservation effect, meaning that the total level of energy consumption does not change for the TOU pricing.

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