Demand side management - electricity savings in Danish households reduce load variation, capacity requirements and associated emission

Energy savings are seen as contributing substantially to reducing the fossil fuel dependence in Denmark and improving energy efficiency. Electricity savings in households is contributing to this through the marginal effect of generating the electricity. As the fossil fuel content of generation varies across the hours also the fossil fuel reduction varies based on the hourly profile of the electricity saved. Using the hourly profile of savings, the different effect on emissions and power capacity requirements from varying electricity savings in households is compared. The value of the savings hereby depends on the profile of the reduced electricity demand. We establish the link between the aggregated hourly household load profile in Denmark and specific categories of household appliances. The objective is to evaluate the fossil fuel effect and value of increasing the average efficiency of different types of appliances. More efficient appliances are assumed to reduce the load curve for each appliance category proportionally. Policy implications relate to the finding that different types of electricity savings have very different emissions and capacity value effects. Potentially it may be relevant to support electricity savings (investment in efficient appliances) differently depending on the hourly profile of the savings. We want to clarify if some end-uses provide better social return on the investment in the efficient appliance model/version than others? The result suggests that savings in efficient lighting have much higher value than a corresponding annual saving in cold appliances.