Communities and Demand-Side Management (DSM) Programs  

Utility companies can play an important role in helping your community use energy more efficiently. By forming partnerships with community organizations, utilities can design and deliver energy-efficiency programs that address your community’s specific needs and goals. Demand-side management (DSM) programs, which focus on decreasing the demand for energy by promoting efficiency, conservation, and load management, represent an important tool to communities aiming to reduce energy consumption. In fact, experts predict that DSM programs could reduce electricity consumption in the U.S. by as much as 3 percent, saving the nation more than $6 billion annually. 

There are a variety of programs utilities can undertake to reduce energy demand across all sectors of your community. Among them: energy audits for industrial operations, home energy rating services, home weatherization services, and financial incentives for homeowners and businesses to install energy-conserving upgrades. 

For example, with tight energy supplies in California recently, the California Energy Commission (CEC) announced in February 2001 that its $50-million peak load reduction program is on course to save 161 megawatts of peak electricity load by June 1. Roughly half of the load reductions will come from energy efficiency projects, ranging from efficiency improvements in wastewater treatment and agriculture to improved lighting, heating, and air conditioning systems in state buildings and public universities. Read more.

One example of a CEC grantee is Kmart Corporation, which will use a $2 million grant to retrofit inefficient lighting in 85 of its older stores in California. The energy savings will be enough to provide power to 11,500 residents, according to Kmart. Read more (see also the correction to this story).

The CEC also is awarding $10 million to 44 public agencies to switch their traffic lights to energy-efficient, light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED traffic lights have proven a popular way to save energy, and are now cropping up in cities throughout the United States. As one indication of this trend, the Energy Star program — a joint program of DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — recently added LED traffic signals as a new Energy Star product category.

Additionally, California Governor Gray Davis announced in February 2001 that the state will spend more than $800 million this year to encourage energy efficiency and electrical load reductions. A new program, funded at $404 million, will augment the $424 million in programs already being carried out through the California Energy Commission and the Public Utilities Commission. The new program includes an additional $75 million in rebates for consumers who replace inefficient appliances, $50 million to improve energy efficiency in state buildings, and $50 million for reflective lighting and roofs, improved shading, and other measures for commercial buildings. Read more.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is a progressive electric utility aiming to reduce energy demand by 550 to 600 megawatts by 2000. Toward this end, the utility has successfully implemented a variety of programs for both residential and commercial customers to reduce energy demand. These programs may serve as models for your community’s energy plan. 

Links: 

Association of Energy Services Professionals. Formerly the Association of Demand-Side Management Professionals, AESP is an association representing engineers, analysts, and economists dedicated to providing superior services to utility customers. The association conducts training courses, topical conferences, and workshops; and publishes reports, books, a quarterly newsletter, and a scholarly journal. 

DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website provides links to many utility-related resources. 

On-line Publications: 

"Demand-Side Management Fact Sheet: Part of the Mix in Hawaii's Energy Future"
Provides a good discussion of DSM, including advantages and disadvantages, and provides information on DSM programs both in Hawaii and on the mainland.

Publications: 

The Role of Community-Based Organizations in Demand Side Management, Center for Neighborhood Technology. 

A paper describing how utility companies can work together with community organizations to deliver energy efficiency programs and become more active in local economic development. Available from: Center for Neighborhood Technology, 2125 West North Avenue, Chicago, IL 60647. Phone: (312) 278-4800. 

Provides a useful and practical compilation of the state-of-the-art in energy efficiency technologies and programs, resource planning and policy making, and data collection and analysis methodologies. Several chapters specifically address utility technologies and programs. Available from: American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, 2140 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704. Phone: (415) 549-9914. ACEEE also has a variety of other publications related to utility energy efficiency programs. 

• Evaluation of Residential Direct-Load Control Programs in Wisconsin.

• Commercial Direct-Load Control Savings Estimate for Wisconsin.

The Centre for the Analysis and Dissemination of Demonstrated Energy Technologies (CADDET) has published a variety of analysis reports, technical brochures, and workshop proceedings focusing on energy efficiency in the utility sector. 

Software: 

ECO is an easy-to-use software package developed by Tellus Institute that helps identify cost-effective DSM measures and programs. The package provides a framework for analyzing utility conservation and energy efficiency programs from a variety of perspectives and can determine the impacts of multiple fuels, water consumption, and environmental externalities. For more information, see "ECO: Energy Conservation Options."  

On-Line Case Studies: 

Profiles in Renewable Energy: Case Studies of Successful Utility-Sector Projects 
Describes successful renewable energy projects utilizing six renewable resources—biomass, geothermal, hydropower, photovoltaics, solar thermal, and wind—undertaken by U.S. utility companies. Discusses key factors to the success of each project, development issues, project cost, performance, and environmental impacts and benefits. 

Energy Efficiency Program 
Describes a program offered by Wahoo (Nebraska) Utilities, which provides incentives to all its electric customers to make energy-efficiency improvements in their homes and businesses. Also provides free energy audits and financial analyses of energy-efficiency options. 

Environmental and Conservation Programs 
Explains Seattle City Light’s conservation programs, which provide conservation information to customers and offers financial incentives to encourage customers to install energy-efficiency measures in their homes and businesses. 

Midwest Wind Energy Program 
Describes a joint effort between Waverly Power & Light and the University of Northern Iowa to install and operate an 80-kW wind turbine. The program has reduced carbon dioxide output by some 119 tons and generated more than 325,000 kWh of electricity. 

Osage Municipal Utilities 
Profiles a utility program that began in 1974 and uses giveaway programs, rebates, and energy audits to promote energy efficiency among its customers. The voluntary program has achieved nearly universal participation from customers in a variety of its initiatives. 

Climate Challenge Participation Accord 
Profiles the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) commitment to DOE’s Climate Challenge, including its DSM efforts, goals, and programs. 

Espanola Power Savers Community-Based Conservation Project
Describes a full-scale effort by Ontario Hydro to reduce electricity consumption to as great an extent as possible through DSM programs. An impressive 87 percent of residential and commercial customers are participating in the program. 

Viroqua, Wisconsin, implemented a community-based energy efficiency program, called Viroqua Conserves, in 1993. The project successfully demonstrated a demand-side management strategy to maximize energy conservation by involving the community in the planning, design, and implementation of the program. Two-page and six-page evaluation summaries of the project are available from the Energy Center of Wisconsin.

Last updated: January 30, 2004

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