Conservation and demand management in community energy systems
Community Energy Systems (CESs) are localized systems that can generate, deliver, and/or store energy, which can come in different forms, including electricity, natural gas, and district heating. These can be operated in islanded mode or tied into the main grid, either continually or for backup purposes. Since CESs are by definition small-scale, even small deviations from forecasts can be much more costly to users as those costs of overbuilding or underbuilding are shared among a much smaller group of consumers (rather than the much larger pool across the larger system). Accurate peak load forecasts are very difficult, and they are especially difficult for CESs because inaccuracies cannot be smoothed across a larger base. Conservation and demand management can be efficient tools to smooth over inevitable deviations from forecasts. The conservation model proposed in this chapter would target conservation at the most elastic (price sensitive) consumers only during narrowly defined peak periods in order to increase utilization of fixed assets and drive down unit costs. This would reduce the overall capacity requirements of the system, and these savings would be saved among all users. The three main elements of this model are to (1) lower the peak in order to defer capacity expansions; (2) increase utilization in order to reduce unit costs and rates; and (3) target conservation efforts at the most elastic (price sensitive) consumers so that conservation is procured at the lowest possible cost. Conservation can be achieved through a combination of disincentives for consumption during very narrow peak periods and incentives for consumption during off-peak periods. Together, these have the effect of flattening the demand curve.
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