It seems like some of the prerequisites for demand side management are already achieved; the
Swedish electricity market and regulation is adapted to hourly reading of the electric meters
and the meters installed are also so called smart meters, that allow hourly and remote reading
of the consumption.
The large deployment of heat pumps in Sweden means a large potential for using the heating
system to achieve flexible loads for private consumers.
One important hindrance appears to be the lack of active, interested customers. Since the law
that made it possible for hourly reading was passed in 2012, not that many customers have
chosen to change their electricity contract. The fact that only few companies offer flexible
hour contracts can be considered problematic. It is likely that a lot of customers are not aware
of the possibility and possible benefits of having hourly reading and flexible hour contracts. If
more customers requested this type of contracts the companies would probably speed up the
development and the amount of companies offering flexible hour contracts would increase,
giving the customers more options. At the same time however, if the companies do not have
these offers many customers will not be aware of the option and therefore will not request it
either. It appears that the electricity companies’ aren’t fully utilising the possibility for
flexible hour contracts.
One other issue that counteracts active customers could be that the price of electricity is quite
low. Also the concept of load shifting and congestion in the grid might not have had as much
attention as energy efficiency in general, which also reduces the cost of electricity and does
not require a change in the electricity contract. The fact that hydro power stands for a large
share of the electricity production and that it is a dispatchable energy source means that the
problem with handling peaks in the Swedish grid may not be as critical as in other countries.
Still, with an increasing share of intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind power