Promoting demand-side management and energy efficiency in Portugal 2 years of experience

ERSE has established a mechanism aimed at promoting efficiency in electricity consumption called PPEC, having a yearly (2007 and 2008) implementation budget of 10 million euros, representing 0,2% of final prices. PPEC consists of a tender mechanism, by which eligible promoters submit measures to improve electricity efficiency. These measures are selected through technical and economical evaluation criteria presented in this paper.The benefits for the electricity sector and the environment from PPEC 2008 are much higher than the correspondent costs, with a ratio of 8:1 in the residential segment; 9:1 in the services segment and 7:1 in the industrial segment. From 2007 to 2008, the expected cumulative avoided consumption more than doubled from 390 GWh /144 455 tonCO₂ to 878GWh / 324 794 tonCO₂. The costs per ton of CO₂ avoided (PPEC 2008: 9,2epsiv/MWh; PPEC 2007: 21,2epsiv/MWh) are much lower than the cost resulting from the implementation of equivalent measures in the supply side, such as the promotion of special regime generation (41,6epsiv/MWh).