ABSTRACT
This conclusion chapter presents an overview of key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of the book. The book investigates the measures that policy-makers, utilities and consumers can undertake to tackle peak electricity demand. Excessive peaks in electricity demand bring about significantly negative environmental and economic impacts. This is because if a vast number of users are consuming electricity at the same time, energy suppliers have to activate dirty old power plants with higher greenhouse gas emissions and higher system costs. Currently most consumers pay for the amount of electricity they use regardless of when they consume it. For generators providing electricity is more expensive at peak times and even though wholesale prices tend to be higher during these periods, there is widespread concern that not enough capacity will be built to ensure adequate capacity, potentially leading to blackouts over coming years.
