Author(s)

P. Warren

Abstract

Electricity demand-side management (DSM) refers to technologies, actions and programmes on the demand-side of electric meters that seek to manage or decrease electricity consumption, in order to reduce overall electricity system expenditures or contribute to the achievement of policy objectives such as carbon emissions reduction or balancing electricity supply and demand. The programme and policy side of DSM has been little explored and the research contributes to filling this gap by undertaking a global systematic review of electricity-focussed DSM programme case studies to determine what constitutes best practice programmes and policies in DSM. Systematic Reviews are a method primarily used in the medical sciences and to which have had limited application in the energy policy field to date. DSM ‘best practice’ is defined as programmes and policies that reduce overall electricity demand or shift loads to off-peak time periods, through measures that are environmentally, economically and socially beneficial, and are transferable between regions and countries. Best practices are not static but constantly evolving as circumstances change and new evidence is brought to light. The UK is currently consulting on how to include the demandside in its Electricity Market Reform policy proposals and a key outcome of this research is to determine the transferability of international best practices to the UK to feed into this process. The research aims to determine how and why particular DSM programmes are successful or fail and what the underlying contextual factors are that could prevent or allow their transferability to the UK. This paper focuses on the findings from an extensive year-long literature review and some of the preliminary results from the Systematic Review. Keywords: demand-side management, electricity, systematic review, energy policy, best practice, energy security, carbon emissions reduction.

Keywords

Keywords: demand-side management, electricity, systematic review, energy policy, best practice, energy security, carbon emissions reduction.