A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering

Research Studies Project Report (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1997

In Laos, existing tariff for domestic consumers is in flat rate and does not cover production cost of power supply. On other hands, electricity exceeding domestic consumption is exported to Thailand in price differentiating by various time of day: 5.8 cents/kWh during peak, 3.3 cents/kWh during partial peak, and 2.6 cents/kWh during off peak. Due to peak time in Thailand is the same as that in Laos, so as a result the country loses foreign trade earning to subsidizing domestic consumption that gradually grows. The problem addressed is the selection of electricity tariff based on attitude of hotels and factory entrepreneurs/managers. This study offers three different Time-of-Day tariffs to customers. Vientiane Urban Area was selected as a case study and a five-level hierarchy model for electricity tariff was developed to evaluate attitude of both decision makers and consumers. In the assessment process, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been utilized to formulate and solve problem, which is run later by Expert Choice package. To derive the relative weights among various interest groups and their objectives, paired comparison questionnaires were used in interviewing government officials, EdL planners, managers and specialists of these hotels and factories facilities who are concerned and knowledgeable with the electricity tariff. The results have shown that the proposed TOD rate that has three time-differentiated prices is preferred over the present flat rat tariff, while another proposed TOD rate with two time differentiated prices has the least attractiveness among these three rates. This implies that TOD rate is practically challenging to be applied in Lao PDR.