تکمیل برنامه های مدیریت تقاضا با گزینه های مولد توزیع

Ever increasing electrical energy demand is forcing power serving entities around the world to use various demand management programs to help in stressful times of the electric power grid. Demand management programs aim to control electrical energy demand among customers and create load relief for electric utilities. Recently demand management contracts have been designed in which incentives are offered to customers who willingly sign up for load interruption. In recent years much technological advancement has been made in distributed generation, and the cost of using this option can bring about extra flexibility into existing demand management schemes. This paper explores the use of distributed generation technology within the existing demand management ideas. More specifically, it compares economic aspects of using demand management contracts with the use of distributed generation. A key observation of this paper is that there may be cases where it is more beneficial to use distributed generation rather than demand management contracts.

Demand side management [1], [2] and [3] aims at influencing customer use of electricity or altering the pattern and magnitude of customer load. This can be achieved either by peak clipping, valley filling, load shifting, strategic conservation, and strategic load growth [4]. Utilities usually use DSM strategies whenever they foresee disturbing loading patterns. They apply it either system wide or at specific locations all in a bid to control customer load patterns. In [20] the authors talk about load shifting to off peak periods being a good strategy, and self generating also helping the customers and the system. Demand side management can be applied both in regulated and deregulated environments, an evaluation of demand management for power markets are analyzed in [21]. The authors in [22] give a review of demand response in deregulated electricity markets and talk about how this affects the electricity prices. One of the key requirements of demand management programs is that customer participation must be voluntary. Incorporating all these requirements and designing optimal demand management contracts is therefore not an easy task. Some demand management schemes offer lower rates of electricity for the customers who sign up for demand management contracts, and also give them credit on the maximum demand charge depending on how much of their load they designate to be interrupted. In [5] the authors suggest the use of pay per curtailment method when designing demand management contracts. Either way demand management requires a thorough economic analysis. As this paper illustrates, the use of distributed generation can be a better tool than demand management contracts in some cases. The power grid needs to be healthy in order to provide reliable supply of electric power to their customers. Customers must have sufficient supply availability in order to maximize their benefits of using electricity. Sometimes lower cost of electricity may imply risk of potential unavailability of enough power. Customers willing to share in “availability risk” can derive further benefit by participating in demand management programs. Specifically, whenever utilities foresee dangerous loading patterns, there is a need for a rapid reduction in demand either system-wide or at specific locations. The utility (or the energy serving entity) needs to get relief in order to solve its problems quickly and efficiently. This relief can come from customers who agree to curtail their loads upon request in exchange for an incentive fee. Ref. [5] shows how utilities can get efficient load relief while maximizing their economic benefit. There may be some cases the utility can install distributed generation units at customer sites or certain locations in the grid. This gives the utility the capability to generate the power needed by the customer using distributed resources and having the customer go offline until the problem is solved. For certain situations this might be a cheaper option for the utility. This paper compares the cost of demand management contracts with the cost of distributed generation. Preliminary investigations of this idea have been proposed in the conference paper [6].

Developing technology in micro turbines allowed the use of distributed generation at lower costs. Demand management can be integrated with distributed generation to provide more choice for the utilities (or other electrical energy serving entities) in stressful times. The detailed cost analysis of distributed generation and demand management contracts is beyond the scope of this paper. However if the cost analysis is done correctly, utilities are no longer restricted to traditional demand management programs and instead can choose a combination of distributed generation and demand management options to help out during stressful conditions. The integration of these two ideas will then benefit both the utilities and their customers.