Study of interrelations between electric power systems and large consumers in Russia

The Russian electric utility industry is characterised by the forming trend of transition to market relations between electric power producers and consumers with application of methods for demand side management (DSM) of electric power. Large consumers of electric power include electric boiler plants (the capacity of some of them reaches 120 MW); water supply systems of towns (large electric motors for water pumping); main gas pipelines (electric drive at compressor stations); and lighting loads. Such consumers cause high peak loads. In some deficient power systems, they can exceed the available capacity of power plants. In this paper, the possibility of regulation of magnitude and regimes of energy consumption at these consumers is considered and the effect of such regulation is determined.