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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Georgia Power and Dynamic Pricing

Perfect price discrimination relies upon individual consumers paying the maximum price they are willing to pay for the goods or services they receive. Dynamic pricing is “pricing that changes when the demand for something increases or decreases”, (dynamic pricing, 2006). Dynamic pricing can be a form of perfect price discrimination, often referred to as first-degree price discrimination, if it occurs when companies charge differing amounts for the same service, especially when using a model that considers the time of demand of consumption.

Jeffrey Perloff maintains that in order for a firm to perfectly price discriminate they must determine what an individual consumer’s reservation price is, (the maximum amount they are willing to pay), and they must have considerable information about their customers, (2007, p. 118). Electrical utilities operate as monopolies in most states and therefore have a tremendous amount of market power; however the prices that they can charge customers are regulated by the states in which they operate. Georgia Power, the electricity utility for the state of Georgia, has been successfully using a dynamic pricing model for industrial customers for almost twenty years. In order to charge different amounts they must determine when an industrial customer is using electricity during peak usage times. In order to determine this they installed “smart meters” which record hourly usage for industrial customers.

Georgia Power’s program is a two-part fee based program with standard rates for baseline consumption and hourly market rates added to this fee for consumption above this baseline amount, (Kosavanic & Engel, 2004). There have been significant benefits to Georgia Power and its industrial customers as wholesale market prices, which vary hourly, have dropped 17% since the meters were installed, (Colledge, Hicks, Robb, & Wagle, 2002). Industrial customers of Georgia Power can voluntarily shut down or scale back operations during peak billing periods, without affecting their overall output, by monitoring their usage during these peak-periods.

Recently there is evidence that Georgia Power intends to extend a dynamic pricing model to residential customers as well. Currently residential customers in Georgia can agree to allow Georgia Power to install a switch on their houses that is connected to their HVAC units in exchange for an initial $20.00 credit. During peak electricity use periods in the summer months Georgia Power will be able to send a signal to this switch limiting the amount of time air conditioning units will run. Each time that the power company flips this switch, consumers receive an additional $2.00 credit. Additionally Georgia Power began replacing traditional electricity meters with “smart meters” in January of 2008 on residences with the intention of enabling consumers in the future to manage their energy usage and control their own bills, (Southern Company, 2010).

While a dynamic pricing model for industrial consumption may benefit both Georgia Power and the industries that utilize this model, it remains to be seen that this model will benefit residential consumers. Unless specific provisions are made for those consumers with limited incomes, especially the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled, during the summer months these patrons could be forced to make difficult choices between utilizing medical equipment or the necessary operation of air conditioning units and paying increased electric bills. Additionally, oppressive summer heat could force residents who can no longer afford their power bills from their homes into the streets.


References:

Colledge, J., Hicks, J., Robb, J., & Wagle, D. (2002). Power by the minute. Power Economics , 2002(1), 73-81. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Business Source Premier.

Dynamic pricing. (2006). Dictionary of Business. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/acbbusiness/dynamic_pricing

Kosavanic, L. & Engel, D. (2004, May). Meeting the nation’s demand for power: a new take on demand programs. Energy User News, 29(5), 11-14. Retrieved from EBSCOhost
Business Source Premier.

Perloff, J. M. (2007). Microeconomics (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Addison Wesley.
Southern Company. (2010). Your meter is about to get smarter. Retrieved from http://www.georgiapower.com/residential/smartmeter.asp

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David Hector Thibodeau

1045 Wylie Street SE • Atlanta, GA 30316

• davidhectorthibodeau@gmail.com



Professional Experience:



Georgia College & State University - Milledgeville, GA 31061 2008 - Present

www.gcsu.edu



­Serials/Acquisitions Coordinator

­• Establish policies and procedures for the efficient operation of the Serials and Acquisitions Department, oversees database maintenance and quality, and processing of materials.

­• Supervise full-time faculty, staff, and student positions.

­• Manage electronic serials collection using electronic management software systems.

­• Update bibliographic holdings for serials collection using standard library utilities.

­• Direct all major projects and daily activities involving the management of the serials collection.

­• Oversee participation in National Library of Medicine’s DOCLINE ILL program.

­• Meet with department faculty to review their acquisitions needs and serve as a library liaison with academic departments.

­• Provides assistance and advice to the Dean/University Librarian in the overall administration of the library, including strategic planning and the establishment of overall goals and objectives.

­• Assist library administration in monitoring the budget and expenditures, recommends equipment, supplies, personnel, and other needs. Perform fiscal period close in Voyager integrated library system.

­• Serve as primary liaison to vendors and as the technical contact for electronic databases, including setting up trials, negotiating licensing agreements, managing SLAs, and authoring RFQs and other correspondence.

­• Participate in collection development to support the curriculum by recommending acquisitions and participating in the evaluation of current collections.

­• Develop and prepare statistical and narrative reports.

­• Provide reference services as assigned.



KPMG LLP - Atlanta, GA 10/2003 - 10/2007

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Southeast Area Library Associate

­• Relocated from Miami to Atlanta by KPMG due to assuming additional offices in 2006.

­• Reference, research, and collection management for fifteen Southeast area libraries.

­• Developed on-line training sessions for proprietary accounting research platform.

­• Set up, developed, and administered SharePoint internal collaboration web site.

­• Liaison to National Operations teams on SharePoint development.

­• Redeveloped external acquisitions web site to be high functioning and suitable for firm-wide use.

­• Collaborated with marketing department to improve collateral for delivery to clients and targets.

­• Account contact and administrator for firm-wide on-line subscription.

­• Coordinated development of the Latin American Tax Handbook between the European Tax Centre, the Latin American Tax Center, and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation.

­• Led a team to develop an electronic tool to survey library users.

­• Appointed Work Environment Initiative Local Action Committee Representative in South Florida.

­• Promoted from Area Library Coordinator to Area Library Associate and relocated from Boston to Miami in 2003; originally responsible for library collections, acquisitions, vendor relations, and accounts in 13 Northeast area offices.



KPMG LLP - Boston, MA 03/200- - 10/2003

http://www.kpmg.com/



­Northeast Area Library Coordinator

­• Implemented integrated library system software in area libraries.

­• Assisted in creating a collection development database on MS Access to track expenditures.

­• Substantially decreased print purchases through resource sharing and eliminating duplicative materials.

­• Developed electronic process for Partners to select and order professional literature annually that resulted in $60K savings in the Northeast in the first year, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Piloted on-line access to tax literature platform in Northeast Area that resulted in over $25K cost savings in Northeast area and a wider distribution of resources, (project adopted firm wide).

­• Coordinated and developed training programs for Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, and other information platforms for professionals and support staff, (project adopted firm wide).



Education:



American Intercontinental University

­• 2010 – Present, MBA – Project Management Concentration



­Simmons College--Boston, MA

­• Summer 2000; audited - Knowledge Management

­• Summer 1999; audited- Management of Information Technology

­• 1996-1998 MLIS, Graduate School of Library and Information Science



­Boston College--Newton, MA

­• 1984-1988 BA, College of Arts and Sciences: Double Major: English and Psychology





­Hebrew University--Jerusalem, Israel

­• Summer 1988 & summer 1990, Assistant Archaeological Field Supervisor and associated graduate level classes.



Leadership:



Georgia Leadership Institute – State Personnel Administration

­• 2009 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People



­Florida Library Leadership Program -- Tallahassee, FL

­• 2005-2006 - Year-long comprehensive series of learning sessions that focuses on developing an understanding of leadership, within a conceptual framework and practical applications.



Certifications:



Emory University - Center for Lifelong Learning – Atlanta, GA

­• 2008 - Emory University: Management Certification.

­• Courses included: Essentials of Personnel Management, Win-Win Negotiations, Essentials of Supervision, Essentials of Motivation, and Essentials of Coaching for Managers.



­New Horizons--Boston, MA

­• 2002 - Certified Internet Webmaster – Foundation Fundamentals

­• Courses included: Networking, Internet, and Web-Page Authoring Fundamentals.



Professional Memberships:

SLA Georgia Chapter Board Member 2009 - Present

­Tennis Club II Condominium Association President, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2005-2006

­Member: ALA, NASIG, CIP



Skills / Strengths:

• Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw, Factiva, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, & other information databases.

­• Conversational French, some Spanish

­• MS office: Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, SharePoint, Visio, and Project.