Demand Side Management Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The utility gains a resource it can call on in place of building peaking capacity, and the consumer accepts the risk of interruption at a discount. The number and duration of calls permitted is the substance of the negotiation.

Answer: B

The three differ in who decides and how reliable the reduction is: a price leaves it entirely to the consumer, remote switching guarantees it, and a contract sits between. Reliability is what a system operator pays for.

Answer: C

Correct answer: it does not depend on the consumer noticing or acting

A price signal invites a response and may or may not receive one. Direct load control switches the equipment itself, so the reduction is known before the event and can be counted on for system planning. That certainty is why utilities pay for control rights on air conditioners and water heaters.

Answer: D

Correct answer: records consumption by interval rather than as a single total

A conventional meter gives one cumulative figure, from which the time of consumption cannot be recovered, so no time-varying tariff can be billed and no response can be verified. Interval metering is what makes both possible, which is why metering rollouts precede demand response programmes.

Answer: A

Interval data makes a time-varying tariff billable and lets the utility establish what a programme actually delivered. Switching requires a separate control device, and theft detection is a valuable but distinct benefit.

Answer: B

A signal received by the building management system trims the chiller and the lighting without anybody deciding, which makes the response fast and repeatable. Manual response depends on someone being available and willing.

Answer: C

Deferred generation, transmission and distribution investment together with the avoided fuel is what the programme is worth to the system, and the programme is worthwhile if it costs less than that. Estimating it is the central difficulty of the appraisal.

Answer: D

Counting both parties' costs against the system benefit asks whether society as a whole is better off, which is the broadest of the standard tests. The other three tests ask narrower questions and can give opposite answers.

Answer: A

A programme can be excellent for society and still shift cost onto non-participants through lost sales revenue, and this test exposes that. Failing it does not condemn a programme but does raise an equity question for the regulator.

Answer: B

Correct answer: would have taken the measure without the incentive

A free rider collects the payment for something that would have happened anyway, so the programme spends money for no additional saving. Estimating the free rider rate is what turns a gross saving into a net one, and it is the largest single source of dispute in programme evaluation.