We advance the idea of using percent billing changes as a simple measure of price escalation. This simple yet underused metric may help evaluate rate structure design in public utilities. We illustrate how price escalation may generate useful insight for utility managers by analyzing rate structures from water utilities in British Columbia, Canada. We observe that increasing block rates may send weaker relative price signals to users than a simple constant unit charge, and that low volume users tend to receive the strongest relative price signals. Measuring price escalation may also allow one to quantify the distortions generated by fixed charges. We conclude that analysts may find it useful to include measures of price escalation in their portfolio of metrics to evaluate rate structures in energy and water utilities.

中文翻译：

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百分比变化作为水和能源公用事业价格上涨的衡量标准

我们提出了使用百分比计费变化作为价格上涨的简单衡量标准的想法。这个简单但未充分利用的指标可能有助于评估公用事业的费率结构设计。我们通过分析加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省供水公司的费率结构，说明价格上涨如何为公用事业经理提供有用的见解。我们观察到，与简单的恒定单位费用相比，增加阻止率可能会向用户发送更弱的相对价格信号，并且低流量用户往往会收到最强的相对价格信号。衡量价格上涨还可以量化固定费用产生的扭曲。我们得出的结论是，分析师可能会发现将价格上涨的措施纳入其指标组合以评估能源和水务公用事业的费率结构是有用的。