DSM in context: Understanding the value of DSM and the value of DSM program evaluation
Over the past two decades, demand-side management programs have emerged as a major element of electric utility integrated resource plans; EPRI and several PUC commissioners have concluded that DSM has saved utility and ratepayers many dollars. While DSM holds great potential as a means of abating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing acid rain, many programs have been ineffective and inefficient. If DSM is to serve the public welfare and attain its potential, extensive evaluation is required of the effectiveness of the programs and of their effects on the net energy bills of participants and non participants, as well as of the resulting short- and long-term changes in customer energy use. Since evaluation is expensive, a critical decision concerns the extensiveness of the evaluation. The authors discuss several benefits of evaluation, e.g., reducing the variance of demand forecasts and thus the need for new capacity, in order to determine the optimal level of the program. The authors model the effect of a commercial DSM program on the price of energy and use short term elasticities to estimate energy consumption for program participants and non-participants. They compare these consumption estimates to estimates of program savings to assess the magnitude of this effect and the importance of choosing the appropriate evaluation method.
- Research Organization:
- Carnegie Mellon Univ., Dept. of Engineering and Public Policy, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-93ER61711
- OSTI ID:
- 353392
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9310234--4; ON: DE99002137
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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