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Abstract:In Norway there is a growing concern that electricity production and transmission may not meet the demand in peak-load situations. It is therefore important to evaluate the potential of different demand side measures that may contribute to reduce peak load. This paper analyses data from an experiment where residential water heaters were automatically disconnected during peak periods of the day. A model of hourly electricity consumption is used to evaluate the effects on the load of the disconnections. The results indicate an average consumption reduction per household of approximately 0.5 kWh/h during disconnection, and an additional average increase in consumption the following hour, due to the payback effect, of approximately 0.2 kWh/h.

Sustainable development indicators (SDIs) may have good potential to bring environmental concerns to the policy agenda. However, different understandings of sustainability, definitions of SDIs and measurement procedures may give completely different assessments of whether society moves towards a sustainable development path or not. Compilation of statistical indicators for environmental change and sustainability comprises not only a selection of facts in some technical sense, as the choices involved are conditioned by societal interests and implicit values embedded in the data-generating processes. This implies that statistical offices cannot ignore the role that values play in the generation of accurate data sets. To give an assessment of sustainability, we need not only to address historical trends but also to evaluate policy choices made today and how they may influence future development. SDI sets should be evaluated according to how they contribute to deliberation on sustainability in learning processes involving participants beyond the science-policy interface.

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