Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Business Administration

Advisor

Kenneth Gossett

Abstract

Some electric utility leaders lack effective strategies to reduce demand billing charges. Utility leaders are concerned with lowering demand billing charges, as failure to do so can negatively affect profitability. Guided by the operations management theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that distribution electric utility managers use to reduce demand billing chargers from their power providers. The participants were three electric utility leaders working in the Midwest United States who used successful residential demand-side management (DSM) strategies. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and utility documents to address the research question. The collected data were analyzed using Yin’s five-step data analysis, which included compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting data, and concluding the findings. Three key themes emerged: residential demand billing is used to promote peak-shaving, education is used to make demand billing more acceptable to consumers, and incentive structures are tailored to ensure utility company costs are reduced or recouped. A key recommendation is for leaders of distribution electric utility companies to reduce demand billing charges from their power providers while making demand billing more acceptable to consumers and ensuring that utility company costs are reduced or recouped. The implications for positive social change include the potential to implement new strategies for improving DSM practices for benefiting residential applications. With the improvement of DSM, consumers' total electric consumption can be decreased, which can increase disposable income for consumers.

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