Tools and Methods for Integrated Resource Planning: Improving Energy Efficiency and Protecting the Environment - Working Paper No. 7

This book addresses energy efficiency programs and IRP, exploring their application in the electricity sector. We believe that these methods will provide powerful and practical tools for designing efficient and environmentally-sustainable energy supply and demand-side programs to minimize the economic, environmental and other social costs of electricity conversion and use. Moreover, the principles of IRP can be and already are being applied in other areas such as natural gas, water supply, and even transportation and health services. It is important to address the present uncertainty regarding the use of IRP as it was initially applied in North America, due to the on-going deregulation of electric power markets in the USA and Canada. The mandatory use of IRP and DSM is declining as more planning functions are being left to the forces of the deregulated market. Also, in Latin America and other emerging markets, there is a clear trend toward deregulation and privatization in power-sector development, both to exploit the efficiency of the private sector and to relieve the debt-ridden public-utility sector of the burden of new investments. These changes may foreclose some options for “traditional” IRP, but open up a range of new possibilities.