The lack of standards is identified as a key challenge and hindrance for the development of
smart grids and demand side management systems.
The issue of there being a learning curve for the customers regarding how best to manage
their electricity use could further be studied. Elements that can facilitate the learning of how
best to manage the electric load would be relevant to study. It would also be interesting for
future projects to know what time scale to expect for this learning curve.
How to address and motivate customers with different drivers in order to create attractive
business models needs further research. The price level also seems to affect the customer
behaviour and the flexible load results and therefore, especially if a time of use type pricing
model should be used, it is important to know what price levels that would be relevant.
Different technical issues that needs to be studied are: best practices for integrating an
emission signal or renewable energy source signal in the system and the issue of a cold load
pick-up effect. The potential of aggregating heat pumps and having a cascade control should
also be examined.
The minimum volume of the allowed bids at the electricity market and the real-time balance
market might need to be changed in order to facilitate a development of aggregation.
An increased exchange of experiences from different projects is desirable for supporting the
development of smart grid and demand side management and this can be considered a key
challenge that needs to be targeted.