The Grattan Institute has released a report (available here) which takes an interesting look at electricity pricing and suggests some potential changes to the current model of simply charging for the power used. Rather they suggest charges that reflect the cost of the maximum load that the user imposes on the network and the cost of providing peak-demand infrastructure.
News.com.au have run a story on the report which includes details of a (different) scheme operating in France which differentiates pricing on different days and has led to an overall 10% decline in prices as peak-demand, and therefore peak-demand infrastructure, has been limited.
More on this story from Business Spectator today; and some enlightening comments following that article which demonstrate the difficulty that any government will have introducing, or even considering, a new pricing model!