End-user Electric Demand management Should be a Rational Policy Objective

摘要

An effective national energy policy must include a broad array of approaches to meeting the nation's energy needs. The more energy arrows in the quiver, so to speak, the better we may meet the challenge. As it has evolved over the past 25 years, our energy policy has reflected mounting awareness that we must address both the need to increase energy supply and the need to curb the growth in energy demand. Yet the application of attention and resources to these complementary efforts has been uneven. Energy supply issues are often at the forefront of political discourse and public awareness, and supply-side initiatives tend to generate the lion's share of funding. As to the various techniques of demand-side management (DSM), however, the pronouncements of policymakers have not always kept pace with technological advancements that stand to vastly improve the effectiveness of such techniques. Time-of-use energy pricing, in particular, could become a far more potent DSM tool as a result of innovations in metering technology. Despite the past relative neglect of such matters, there are encouraging signs in proposed federal legislation and ongoing federal and state regulatory initiatives that DSM in general, and time-of-use energy metering and pricing in particular, may finally have their day.