CONSERVATION AND DEFERRAL POTENTIALS OF DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMMES: A CASE STUDY

摘要

Demand side management options (DSMO) can reduce the peak electricity demand for utilities. This reduction in demand is helpful to the utility in at least two ways: first, it minimizes the penally costs of not being able to meet the peak demand and thus it has the potential to reduce costs; second, it also can defer the need for building new power plants and hence it can release, at least for some period of time, the scarce capital (which is especially important for the developing countries) for use in development activities elsewhere. These two benefits have been considered in detail in the paper. An analytical model has been developed to estimate the conservation potential of the DSM programmes. The model is then used to illustrate the benefit derived by deferring the construction of a new power plant. The model has been applied to the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, an electric utility in India, as a case study, Several scenarios have been constructed to account for different levels of the DSM possibilites. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to tackle some of the uncertainties associated with the assumptions in the analysis.