Contents I. Introduction
In the last decade, both electric utilities and customers have experienced increasing costs for electric power and energy due to escalating costs of burning fuels and capital costs for building new generation capacity. Load management (LM) which changes the shape of the load curve so that generation by costly peaking units or capacity additions are avoided or deferred, is an effective solution to the above problem. LM applications in the industrial sector have been limited probably due to lack of knowledge about controllability of loads and variations in the demand pattern of different industrial loads. Since the industrial sector accounts for a significant proportion of the total electricity consumption in most developing countries (40% in India) and the average electricity consumption per consumer is high, industrial load management (ILM) is an important option for utilities to manage their peak deficit. Several ILM applications have been reported for different utilities using load priority system, load scheduling or interruptible load control schemes [1]–[3]. Most process industries have linkages between sub-processes resulting in flow and storage constraints. In order for ILM to be successful, it is essential to develop a tool, which permits the assessment of the optimal response to a time-varying tariff.
