Third World energy policies Demand management and conservation

Abstract

Increasing energy costs underline the need for more efficient management of energy supply and demand to maintain economic growth, especially in the resource scarce developing countries. Combining policy tools for demand management and conservation (including pricing, physical controls, technical methods, and education) yields the best results. Pricing policy takes into account the efficiency costs of energy supply required to meet economic objectives. This is then adjusted to satisfy other objectives of pricing such as social-subsidy considerations, financial viability, conservation, price stability, etc. Energy conservation programmes should be implemented only after determining whether their economic benefits exceed the corresponding costs.