Demand Side Management in Swedish Industry - An investigation of load management in major Swedish industries

Abstract

Demand side management (DSM) is a measure to reduce energy costs and stabilise the energy distribution system. The capabilities of DSM have not, so far, been utilised in large-scale in Swedish industry. DSM is particularly of interest for electricity intensive industries, where the electricity price is a large part of production cost. This work aims to investigate DSM potential in several electricity intensive industries using load management such as load shifting and shedding. Magnitude of DSM potentials in terms of power is the result of the case studies for each specific industry and branch. Economic analysis in the study shows that applying load management measures can offer financial savings. The findings indicate a large potential of DSM capacity for total Swedish industry especially for the mechanical pulp and paper industry. Roughly the DSM potential for whole Swedish industry can be estimated to be in the range of 0.5-2 GW. However, Swedish industries are found to be very heterogeneous regarding production characteristics; similar processes behave very different even within the same category and branch. Each specific case is unique and should be analysed separately. Therefore the calculations to carry out the precise magnitude of DSM potential and its associated profits are complex. It should be noted that even if the potentials today are found to be rather large; the economic incentives are relative small to implement DSM in the Swedish industry.