Analysis of successful demaind-side management at publicly owned utilities

摘要

The primary purpose of this report is to present an analysis of case studies of publicly owned utilities that have made cost effective investments in demand-side management (DSM) and which have had marked success to date. Through this analysis we hope to determine some of the factors that have contributed to their success in order to help identify other utilities which may be strong candidates for future DSM program development. While many investor-owned utilities have not yet implemented DSM programs and thus also have the occasion to exploit this resource option, public power utilities appear to have an exceptional opportunity based on their charters. Publicly owned utilities can focus first and foremost on their customers, who are in fact their owners. This clear link between utility benefit and customer benefit presents itself as an opportunity for publicly owned utilities. To carry out the scope of this project, IRT Environment staff first sought to identify publicly owned utilities that have had success with DSM. To that end, IRT Environment conferred with staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and at the American Public Power Association, and conducted a limited number of telephone calls to leading public power officials seeking (open quotes)clear winner(close quotes) programs. Rather than a scientific exercise with specific selection criteria, final selection was instead based on utilities' reputations with demand-side management. From a list of two dozen utilities, five utilities were chosen. IRT Environment then visited each utility for two days during the fall and winter of 1993-1994. At each utility carefully planned visits resulted in comprehensive meetings with DSM program staff, including planners, implementers, evaluators, and senior management. Field visits were conducted in each city as well, providing an important complement to extensive meetings at the utilities' headquarters.