Tiaoqui says restructuring the power industry will reduce rates, citing precedents in Europe, New Zealand and the U.S., where changes resulted in competitive pricing for electricity.

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The ultimate point of smart grids, however, is to allow dynamic pricing, with electricity charges fluctuating in response to demand.

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Well, unless one can argue that without the pricing pressure of rising electricity bills, inflation would have been 7%, then yes it worked.

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Under flat-rate pricing, the price paid for electricity is the same for any hour of the day or season of the year.

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The solar mission in its first phase focused on areas already connected to the grid and had a pricing system that bundled four units of thermal electricity with one unit of solar-based power, which reduced the average per-unit cost of solar electricity.

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"We also recognise that regulators, policy makers, consumer representatives and the electricity industry especially, all have some responsibility in helping to explain the pricing picture, " he added.

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By communicating with a smart meter, Nucleus will let people program appliances to take advantage of off-peak pricing plans offered by utilities that have time-of-use electricity plans.

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