Utility rebates for efficient motors-the outlook for demand-side management

Since 1987, many electric utilities throughout North America have been actively promoting “DSM” (demand-side management), the attempt to conserve fuels and postpone costly generating capacity increases by encouraging customers to use more efficient electrical equipment, including motors. One popular DSM program has been utility payment of cash rebates to purchasers of more efficient motors. Today, such payments face extinction in a rapidly changing utility economic climate based on deregulation. How rebates originated, the basis for such payments, how successful rebate programs have been, and what the future holds for them-these are the subjects of this paper