What is Demand-side Management (DSM)?
DSM
refers to initiatives and technologies that encourage consumers to optimise
their energy use.
The benefits from DSM are
potentially two-fold; first, consumers can reduce their electricity bills by
adjusting the timing and amount of electricity use. Second, the energy system
can benefit from the shifting of energy consumption from peak to non-peak hours
(see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1: Illustration of Smoothing Out Peak
Electricity Demand
Based on a study by Professor
Frank A. Wolak, Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development
in Stanford University, every MW reduction of peak demand in Singapore
translates to a system-wide savings of about $1.6 million.
"Singapore’s
climate, customer mix, and familiarity with advanced communications
technologies make it ideally suited to achieve significant economic and
environmental benefits from active load management.” by Professor Wolak,
Director of Program on Energy and Sustainable Development in Stanford
University.
Check out our DSM Self-Assessment Checklist to understand how easy it is to participate in DSM! Email EMA_Enquiry@ema.gov.sg for enquiries on DSM.
Enabling Consumer Participation in DSM
EMA has put in place several DSM measures (see
Figure 2 below) to empower participation by electricity consumers to optimise
their energy use.
Figure 2: DSM Measures that Consumers can
Participate

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Project OptiWatt
Project OptiWatt is a pilot programme
to demonstrate the viability of DSM initiatives, including testing the relevant
technologies and business models, as well as understanding consumer behavior.
Since the launch of Project OptiWatt
in October 2016, several partners have conducted technical studies and
identified potential DSM and energy efficiency solutions that complement their
own consumption profiles.
More information on the studies can be
found in the infographic below.

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The partners comprise Institutes of
Higher Learning, government agencies, companies, electricity retailers,
research institutions and the electricity grid operator:

Success Stories from Project OptiWatt
- ERI@N and ENGIE
developed the PowerZee mobile app, piloted by 1,850 NTU students and 291 Ngee
Ann Polytechnic students, to reduce energy use through interactive user
engagement and gamification. The app provided the Facilities teams with
aggregated feedback on students’ thermal comfort, allowing for data-driven
temperature adjustments in the buildings.
“What we want is for
our users to learn about energy efficiency in a fun and engaging way.” by
Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, Director of Energy Research Institute @ NTU
(ERI@N)
“Research shows that informed energy consumers
lead to potential energy savings of between 5 to 15 percent. As such, in
collaboration with NTU, we developed PowerZee based on gamification models to offer
students practical ways to cut their energy consumption in a fun, interactive
and social manner.” by Etienne Drouet, Director of ENGIE Lab Singapore.
- ibis
Singapore on Bencoolen participated in the Seraya Energy Make-Over Programme
that identifies potential energy saving opportunities for consumers.
“Through this programme, we were
able to optimise our cost savings.” by Jade Stunden, Executive Assistant
Manager of ibis Singapore on Bencoolen
- The
Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) has shifted about 0.3 –
0.4 MW of load by adjusting the timing of its washers and sterilisers to
operate outside the system peak period without affecting its operations. This shows that peak shifting and reduction
initiatives result in minimal impact on existing processes and operations.
- Air
Liquide has been partnering Diamond Energy to offer 2.2 MW of Interruptible
Load in the electricity market.
“Diamond’s participation
incentive provides an appealing value proposition for us as it allows our plant
to benefit by being available to respond to an activation event.” By Cheong
Zhen Siong, Energy Manager of Air Liquide
Another aspect of the pilot involves
working with private sector companies to explore how new business models could
be catalysed for DSM initiatives. A co-creation process between EMA and
industry was established to enable innovative solutions to reduce the barriers
of entry for DSM.
- Under
the Direct Demand Response Aggregator enhancement by EMA, consumers have more
options to participate in the Demand Response programme through streamlined IT
system requirements. The first application under this enhancement was by
Diamond Energy who has registered 7.2 MW of capacity in the DR programme in
October 2017. This is the first capacity to be registered in the DR programme
and demonstrates the success of the co-creation process that was deployed.
- Red
Dot Power launched the eResponse pilot incentive scheme with Ngee Ann
Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (Central
and West). The participating institutions were paid an incentive to voluntarily
reduce consumption during peak periods.
A
preliminary trial was conducted at Temasek Polytechic (TP) prior to the pilot to
explore how consumption can be reduced to respond to real-time system
conditions, such as highprices or contingency events. The trial demonstrated that the electricity
load of chillers – amounting to about 13.5% of total consumption - can be
curtailed for up to half an hour with minimal impact on comfort level of users
within the premises (refer to Figures 3 and 4 below).
Figure 3: Chiller Consumption and Power Curtailment Period at TP

Figure 4: Temperature Chart at TP During Curtailment

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