Abstract:
Much demand side response work focuses either on long-term efficiency (in light of long-term energy price changes); or on short-term peak demand management, which has come to the forefront in recent years as generation and transmission over-capacity have diminished and markets have shown correspondingly high price signals for peak capacity (often in line with electricity market deregulation). New, cheaper ‘smart metering’ technologies offer new opportunities in the latter area for smaller users. Hydro-dominated electricity markets often share a comm on characteristic of low (historical) electricity prices (and therefore low historical attention to electricity efficiency) and less problems with meeting peak demand due to short-term flexibility of hydro generatio n capacity. However, they also share a recurrence of energy shortages due to droughts. Demand reduction in these periods can be very useful in reducing the chance of dry year shortages or reducing the need for dry year back-up capacity, but falls between the time-frames of long-term efficiency investment s and short peak demand management and therefore often requires different technologies and management mechanisms. It seems that this ‘time-frame’ of demand side management is understudied. The present research compares experiences in two hydro-electric markets in Norway and New Zealand, which share many similarities. It specifically focuses on demand side management in the residential sector during droughts in both countries, the potential and the methods for demand reduction. An explicit aim of presenting this research at the 1 st IAEE global conference in Rio is to ascertain whether data and interest can be harnessed to expand similar research in Latin America, where the majority of global hydro-electric markets exist. Experiences from differ ent jurisdictions might provide valuable lessons.
