Load management implementation, a method of improving financial performance in power systems

The basic responsibility of the electric utility industry is to supply reliable, efficient, and economical electric service to the customer. However, meeting these responsibilities has became increasingly complex because of the new technical, economical, environmental, political, and social considerations. The effect of these considerations/constraints has been to increase the uncertainty in the planning process and raise operating and capital costs for the electric utility industry. Therefore, utilities have sought means to control the rate of peak load to improve the efficiency/utilization of present electric energy systems and to reduce requirements for additional generation, transmission, and distribution investments. These methods form the set of functions known as load management. In this paper, application of the residential load management program of Florida power and Light (FPL) is discussed. The load management program in south Florida is evaluated from both the utility and customer's perspective. This includes system configuration, establishment of residential load management program, customer acceptance, utility costs and benefits, and demographics.