Renewable generation versus demand-side management. A comparison for the Spanish market

Conventionally the required instantaneous balance generation-load is achieved by adjusting production to fit variable consumer demand. Nowadays, a significant and increasing segment of generation is renewable. But renewable production cannot be scheduled on request since its generation is dependent on nature (wind, sun, …). In this context, demand-side management (DSM) would help since it would be advisable for part of the flexibility to be provided by the demand. The integration of renewable production and demand-side management (DSM), are compared in this work for Spain throughout 2008–2014. First a qualitative model, based on the linearization of the wholesale market, is employed to explore some hypotheses. A set of scenarios are then examined to quantify the main effects on the market. The results show that DSM exhibits the best performance in terms of economic efficiency and environmental sustainability, as well as for the reduction of load peaks and losses in the system, what suggests the convenience of promoting plans for the replacement of equipment with other more efficient as well as the implementation of real-time tariffs. [Display omitted] •The impact of the integration of renewable production versus DSM has been compared.•Merit-order effect related to energy efficiency and to load-shifting is identified.•Large industries achieve energy efficiency with less CAPEX than renewable generation.•Load-shifting cycle yields a reduction of the traded energy and the economic volume.