Demand side management: A green way to power Beijing

As a Demand Side Management (DSM) PilotCity, one of four in China, Beijing set an ambitious goal to reduce its peak electricity load by 800MW over a three-year period from 2013 to 2015. The Beijing Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Center and Natural Resources Defense Council formed an EcoPartnership in July 2013 to help Beijing achieve this goal by building the DSM implementation capacity within the city. With support from the EcoPartners, the city of Beijing has developed a policy support framework for DSM, launched the DSM Service Platform, and created an electricity services and third party demand response aggregator market. In addition, the EcoPartnership provided opportunities for U.S. service providers to participate in Beijing's nascent DSM market, including sharing program design concepts and implementation models, and developing potential collaboration with local enterprises. DSM is becoming a viable alternative to traditional supply side resources for fulfilling Beijing's power demands in a green and economically efficient way. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.