Demand Side Management Strategies

Most attempts to 'manage demand' end up shifting it around the system – or even making it worse. What if we started with this: rising costs aren't driven by the population, but by the way our systems work? Until we address that, every new tweak or pilot will just add another layer of #complexity. After nearly thirty years in #publicservices, we've pulled together seven demand management approaches that take the whole system seriously – joining up behaviour, data, strategy, and culture. Here’s the outline: 1) Whole system predictive modelling – understand the current system and population characteristics to predict and pre-empt need 2) Prevent demand from arising – use behavioural science, social marketing, and community development to stop issues before they start 3) Early identification and intervention – target risk earlier and build capacity and self-efficacy in communities 4) More effective handling of demand – improve assessment and access, reduce rework and failure demand 5) More effective response to demand – design for outcomes, not activity; align interests across the system 6) Systems leadership – integrate budgets and shape collaborative cultures 7) Measurement, learning, evaluation – compare real to predicted impact, and adapt as you go What's needed is to move from crisis to capability - we've subtitled this 'earlier, easier, #withyou'. It's hard to speak to the world of #earlyintervention and #demandmanagement *and* the world of #strengthsbased working. But it's essential. This work connects #commissioning, #systemsthinking, #systemsleadership #leadership, data, system flow, #publicsector innovation, and the changing role of professionals. The question is: if the system is driving demand, what are we doing that unintentionally feeds it?

Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have been around for a long time as a concept. After China has seen a rise in their use will the US be next? By digitally aggregating thousands—often millions—of flexible assets like heat pumps, EV chargers, batteries, smart thermostats, and commercial HVAC, VPPs deliver reliable capacity, balancing, and ancillary services at a fraction of the cost and carbon of traditional peaker plants, without compromising comfort or productivity. As electrification accelerates and variable renewables scale, grid stress is rising, and building new firm capacity is expensive and slow; unlocking demand-side flexibility is faster, cleaner, and more scalable. The enabling technologies exist today—smart, standards-based controls—and policy is beginning to catch up. Priority actions are clear: pay-for-performance markets that let flexibility compete fairly with supply-side resources, interoperability through open standards to reduce costs and avoid lock-in, and consumer-first participation models with simple enrollment, strong privacy by default, and equitable access, particularly for low-income customers.

Google is proud to have sponsored the new report, "Bridging the Load Gap", published by the Alliance to Save Energy in collaboration with The Ad Hoc Group. The paper introduces the Bring Your Own Distributed Capacity (BYODC) model, a framework for large load customers to work with utilities to fund strategic demand response and energy efficiency investments on the distribution network in return for capacity credit. Key Takeaways: 💡 Unlock Capacity Sooner: Demand-side solutions can provide near-term relief while long-term infrastructure is built. ✅ A Triple-Win: Helps utilities manage growth, accelerates speed to interconnect for large loads, and benefits customers with improved affordability and resilience. 🤝 Collaboration is Key: Utilities, large loads, and regulators must work together to define key implementation details—such as technology portfolio, funding models, and capacity credit mechanisms—and establish the necessary regulatory pathways to turn this concept into reality. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gY_Frsxi #DataCenters #DemandSideManagement #BYODC

EV Demand Management Aggregation Is Commercializing There are four pathways for exploiting the massive battery capacity that's usually sitting idle in electric cars. Some have a lot more potential than others. Full article with graph of scenario: https://lnkd.in/gmrcUDyE Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G): Using EV batteries to supply power back to the grid during peak demand. While conceptually promising, V2G faces critical challenges. Cars are typically plugged in during peak demand, making them contributors to the problem, not the solution. People are hesitant to let utilities use their batteries due to concerns about battery degradation and insufficient compensation. Kahneman's prospect theory is informative. Vehicle-to-Home and Task Power: EV batteries used as backup power for homes or tools at work sites. This approach has niche applications, primarily in markets like the U.S. and Australia, where detached homes with private driveways or small off-grid work sites are common. This is impractical for the majority of the global population, who live in multi-unit buildings with shared parking. For work sites, EV batteries are useful for small tasks but are quickly being overshadowed by large scale electrification. Automatic Demand Management in Buildings: This pathway is already gaining traction in parking lots for fleets, offices, malls, commercial buildings, and multi-unit residences. Operators face significant demand charges for electricity use during peak hours. Automatic systems dynamically pause or reduce EV charging when demand is high, saving costs and reducing grid strain. This is becoming a standard feature as EV adoption accelerates. Aggregated Demand Management: Aggregating EVs in a grid area to form large demand reduction blocks offers utilities a powerful tool for grid management. Companies like BluWave-ai are delivering this today, and utilities in Europe are signing up EV owners for it. Automatic demand management in buildings and aggregated systems for utilities are shaping up to be the dominant strategies. As I predicted four years ago, these approaches align incentives and overcome key barriers to scale. V2G and V2H, while dominant in the popular press and a lot of literature, will be also rans. If you’re an EV driver in Ontario or Prince Edward Island, consider signing up with BluWave-ai in their current round of driver onboarding.

In Texas tonight, we narrowly avoided what could have been a significant crisis for our energy grid. An EEA2 event was triggered in ERCOT, signaling a close call and highlighting the fact that we've been skating on thin ice. With the energy grid under severe stress, it’s an urgent reminder of the proactive measures we must embrace. Systematic demand shifting is paramount. By moving demand away from peak periods of high system strain, we can alleviate pressures on our grid. Sadly, the most promoted electricity plans in Texas are the "free" nights/weekends plans, which can be severely counterproductive. They lure consumers with "free" energy, frequently starting at 9pm, precisely when the grid faces its highest strain. These plans not only foster detrimental consumption habits but also misguide customers on how to use energy wisely. At Rhythm Energy, we're taking active steps to address this challenge. Attacking this problem from the demand side, our Time-of-Use (TOU) plans, like PowerShift, are more than mere innovation—they represent a deliberate move towards more intelligent energy consumption. Shifting our energy consumption patterns isn't a mere recommendation—it's a must. This strategy doesn't only stabilize our grid, but also ensures optimum savings for users. With each day, there's an opportunity to adopt smarter energy choices that safeguard our grid and our wallets. Discover more on how PowerShift is spearheading this transformation and how PowerShift stacks up against popular TOU plans in Texas in our recent blog post: rthm.io/45HL27m #innovation #txenergy #sustainability #ercot