Abstract
Growing demands are causing increased pressure on the electrical infrastructure and perpetually escalated energy prices. Utilities around the world have been considering demand-side management in their strategic planning. The costs of constructing and operating a new capacity generation unit are increasing every day as well as transmission, distribution, and land issues for new generation plants, which force the utilities to search for other alternatives. Here, demand-side management has been implemented as it is less expensive to intelligently influence a load than to build a new power plant or install electrical based storage device. In this chapter, the author has discussed energy efficiency and demand response fulfilling the criteria of energy management which usually tries to take influence onto the energy consumption of a number of energy consumers. The explained demand-side management technical objectives are peak clipping, valley filling, load shifting, load building, energy conservation, and flexible load shape.
TopBackground
DSM involves planning, implementation, evaluation and activity monitoring which can be selected from a variety of technical alternatives. The wide range of different technical alternatives mandates DSM as there are a large number of technical alternatives and there is a wide variety of choice for appropriate alternative selection. The selection of a suitable alternative is little difficult especially when the alternatives are influenced in a strong manner due to the specific local and regional factors. These factors include mix generation, expected growth in load demand, plans for expanding capacity, reserve margins, climate regulation, load factor, and shape of the load for normal and extreme conditions. As a result, transfer of the above factors from one region to another is inappropriate without proper adjustments.
DSM is the planning and implementation of those activities that are designed to modify the energy consumption that would further reflect desired changes in energy magnitude and time pattern. A program of DSM encompasses load management, new uses, strategic conservation, electrification, distributed generation and market share adjustments of energy consuming appliances. DSM extends beyond load management and conservation of load to design programs particularly to change energy use in both on- peak and off-peak time periods. Cost control or customer options include a fair partnership between energy service supplier and the customers. But ultimately, it is the customer who decides whether to participate in a program or not. Load managing programs totally focus on the reduction on consumer’s premises at the time of the rise in utility system loads. The main aspiration is to avoid buildup of generation, production and the delivery facilities that would be required for a small time operation in hours per year.
On the other hand, EE focuses on the annual reduction of loads but load management techniques target specific moments and it has fewer impacts on the total energy consumption. Load management programs are proven to be more stable and reliable over time periods than any other customer programs. The main components of load management activities are direct load control, pricing based choices, and thermal energy storage. There were several important objectives that were to identify the technologies that were efficient in peak clipping, valley filling and load shifting and shift them in market places. Moreover, the conservation efforts were also met that could focus on annual load reduction.
The decrease in the energy demand and consumption in power distribution systems, can free up generation, transmission and distribution capacity. Sinha et al. (2011) observed that with DSM measures the cost of energy saved has been estimated to be as low as 10% of the cost of the added capacity. For a more efficient future planning process and better service, there should be support for EE at customer’s installations which also bring the utility in closer contact with the consumers. It does encourage the consumers to make decisions prior to their energy consumption contributing to energy providers to reduce the maximum load demand. Hence, the reshaping of load profile can be done in an effective manner (Esther, Priya, and Kumar, 2016). Also, Kumar et al. (2015) have developed a simulation model of the synchronized operation of the grid power, solar power and battery for energy management at home level.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Load Forecast: It is a technique used by power or energy providing companies to predict the power/energy needed to meet the demand and supply equilibrium. The accuracy of forecasting is of great significance for the operational and managerial loading of a utility company.
Direct Load Control: The measure of the magnitude of the consumer demand that can be hindered at the day and age of the occasional or seasonal peak load by coordinate control of the framework administrator by intruding the power supply to individual equipment or appliances at intervals within the end-user's premises.
Load Shifting: It is a load management technique that aims to move demand from peak hours to off-peak hours of the day. Loads are shifted from peak to valley times (achieving clipping and filling).
Energy Management: The judicious and effective use of energy to maximize profits and enhance competitive positions.
Load Shape: An approach of describing the maximum load demand on the system and the relationship of power supplied at the time of occurrence.
Demand Response: It is an amendment or modification in the electrical power utilization of an associate electrical utility customer to appropriately coordinate the demand for power with the supply provision.
Load Research: An activity embracing the measurement and study of the characteristics of electric loads to provide a thorough and reliable knowledge of trends, and general behavior of the load characteristics of the customers serviced by the electrical industry.
Demand-Side Management: It is the modification of consumer demand for energy through various methods. It is typically used in the specific sense of actions to modify electricity loads to achieve higher system efficiency. Also used to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption for a given output.
Time of Use: Utilities have different charges for power use during different periods.
Energy Efficiency: It is the utilization of energy in a cost effective way to carry out a manufacturing process or provide a service.
Energy Audit: Evaluation of the energy-related performance of a manufacturing plant or building, used to identify energy efficiency opportunities.
Load Management: It is the process of balancing the supply of electricity on the network with the electrical load by adjusting or controlling the load rather than the power station output.