DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT (DSM) IN AN URBAN HOUSEHOLD IN ZIMBABWE

摘要

Today energy service industry struggle to balance therncompeting needs of increasing energy usage and supplyrnconstraints. Electric utility industry planned their supplyrnto meet the needs of customers with little regard to how orrnwhen customers use energy. The demand for energy hasrnsharply increased due to population growth in urbanrncentres. Current generation cannot meet this demand, as isrnthe case in many developing countries, becauserngenerating infrastructure is obsolete. The dwindling fossilrnfuel reserves and unfavourable use of alternative energyrnsources due to high initial costs in Zimbabwe requires thatrnDSM be utilised as a strategy to alleviate power shortagesrnat household level and reduce investment in energyrninfrastructure, networks and/or power plants. This led torncarrying out an energy demand survey on randomlyrnselected households and collecting data concerning allrnend use electrical equipment. The data collected includedrnthe type of equipment, energy consumption and thernduration of operation per day. A usage matrix wasrntabulated to show the times an appliance was in use. Therndata obtained indicating the energy consumption patternsrnfor the areas under study were presented graphically.rnResults from graphs were analysed to identify end usernapplications that could be potentially targeted to reducernpeak demand. This led to the adoption of strategies tornmitigate high consumption at peak demand. Some of thernstrategies which were used included natural day lighting,rnuse of compact fluorescent lights, efficient security lights,rnefficient fans and solar hot water systems instead ofrnelectric geysers. After application of the strategies, arnusage matrix was tabulated and graphs drawn to check onrnload reduction. Findings indicated a 31% reduction inrnload.