Energy managers should wise up to demand-side response
Businesses with a structured energy policy and the flexibility to manage their own energy consumption could enjoy huge savings and attractive kick-backs in coming years if they choose to fully embrace energy improvement opportunities made available to them.
Demand Side Management, (or response), is becoming the new industry buzz term, and while it is not a not a new concept – it’s actually been around since the energy crises of the 1970s – it has become more relevant than ever in recent years.
DSM focuses on the management of consumer demand for energy, put simply, energy efficiency measures or simply reducing your use of energy by identifying your business’ peak demand periods and seeking ways to reduce consumption during these times.
If you run a business, the idea of any interference in the way you manage your energy may cause concern. After all, you rely on energy for lighting, business equipment and manufacturing plants.
But Demand Side Management or energy efficiency doesn’t mean the government or energy companies are intent on making unilateral decisions to cut the electricity and gas you receive. The idea is more subtle than this. It involves shifting the use of energy through technology and incentives. By taking advantage of these, you could improve the way you control energy use and save money at the same time.
Historically, the energy market has been a pretty straightforward, linear process; suppliers provide it and consumers use it.
But a number of factors are prompting change; change which can only occur if consumers hang up their passive roles and become active ambassadors for energy efficiency for the benefit of all.
A step further along this path, however, is Demand Side Management (DSM), a newly emerging flexible option which can help businesses deliver against their carbon commitments while providing reliable and secure supply at minimum cost, and this is set to play a major part in the future energy markets.
Consumers, who are viewed as the ‘demand-side’, will be able to take advantage of special tariffs and schemes which reward them for changing how and when they use electricity and this is something which we are already seeing emerge.
How effective DSM will be is currently unknown, as it largely dependent on the pace of change and how consumers and suppliers alike react to it. But however the model looks, in principle the need is the same; to produce and consume energy more flexibly and efficiently.
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