Achieving energy efficiency in restructured markets, implications for IRP

The shift of the focus of the vertically integrated model to the new unbundled models of organization to attain a "new competitive" Electricity Supply Industry brings new subjects into integrated resource planning (IRP) study. The centralized decisions on new capacity additions is being substituted by market mechanisms, changing the implementation of the IRP regarding both the construction of new capacity and the demand side management (DSM). The implication for DSM is that, without a central planning process, it will not be possible to carry out IRP. It would be necessary to intervene in the market to introduce mechanisms to encourage investment decisions in favour of energy efficiency programmes where they are economically feasible. Some countries are implementing policies tending to create a more favorable attitude towards energy efficiency in products and services. The conventional programmes of demand-side management are being redesigned as added-value services to conserve or create market quota through market transformation mechanisms, such as technology procurement.