Load Management Made Simple

Abstract

Up until the 1970's electric utilities were basically in a supply side management mode, in which plants were built to serve whatever demand customers required. However in the last 10- 15 years, many utilities, including Texas Utilities Electric Company have moved to a demand side or load management mode which seeks to influence customers to change electric usage patterns to more efficiently use available generating capacity. Since 1970, the TUEC system peak demand has more than doubled from about 7400 MW to almost 16000 MW projected in 1985. The cost and difficulty of building new power plants to serve this load has caused TUEC to use load management as a tool to slow this demand growth. Six load management strategies will be discussed: 1. Peak clipping 2. Strategic conservation 3. Valley filling 4. Strategic load growth 5. Load shifting 6. Flexible load shape Research is required to determine which types of loads or types of customers contribute most heavily to system peak demands and thus should be targeted for load management programs. Furthermore, rates which accurately reflect the cost to serve a customer can be used as a load management tool. Load management has significantly reduced TUEC's need for new power plants over the last 5 years and will continue to create a situation in which both customers and the utility will benefit.