Abstract

A case has been made for benefits of demand side management (DSM) against supply side management (SSM) with a number of modern facets exploited by an advanced consumer society. Situations for a country like Uganda make both options difficult, while DSM is more manageable.

Today's market is deregulated with many players in generation, distribution, supply and regulation, coupled with a multiplicity of relatively varied consumer market. One tool is to have what experts call real time related pricing depending on supply availability, creating an environment that gets consumers to alter their utilization to optimize on overall costs. Other novel concepts arising out of close co-operation between all parties concerned include such concepts as using a web information service on availabilities and constraints on a network to take operational decisions that both enhance system reliability and user load rescheduling at optimal cost.

This article takes the energy management views on conservation versus generation of electricity by Satish Saini as presented in his May/June 2004 REFOCUS magazine as a basis for analysis of the picture for a young nation, in this instance, Uganda. This analysis presumes no connection to a regional network that could make SSM more viable.

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