As electricity cost increases, more and more utilities are extending their activities into once-forbidden territory: the customer's side of the meter. In order to increase efficiency and hold the line on costs, they are controlling, directly and indirectly, when and how the electric energy is used-shifting from a supply-side-only viewpoint to demand-side technologies. They are including the customer as a new utility corporate planning option. This control is called load management. It aims to even out or change the magnitude of hour-to-hour and season-to-season variations in electricity demands; it cuts off the peaks and fills in the valleys in demand-time curves. The procedure benefits utilities by allowing more uniform use of generating equipment and thus benefits users by helping to hold down rates. Implementation and effects of this type of load management are discussed.
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Clark W. Gellings (1981) studied this question.