About PLMA

The Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA) was formed by a group of organizations with business interests in dealing with the tremendous price fluctuations experienced in the electricity supply markets during the last few years of the twentieth century. These price fluctuations resulted from the market's inability to either generate or transmit a supply of electricity sufficient to meet the demand at certain times.

Unlike other commodities, the demand for electricity is somewhat inelastic. As a result, in times of short supply, the price for electricity has increased nearly 4,000 % in some areas of the country. This has resulted in great financial burdens for some electric suppliers who have a contractual obligation to continue supplying electricity to their customers at a fixed price despite the tremendous price increase on the wholesale electricity supply markets.

The purpose of the Alliance, a not-for-profit organization, is as follows: "Create a community of expertise on demand response and its role in creating efficient electricity markets. Through this community, the Alliance will bring forward useful information on price responsive loads, market structures and market rules. This will include information on market participants roles, customer needs and actions, enabling technologies, and specific programs as appropriate."

Membership Information

The various classes of membership and the annual dues structure are as follows:

Category A - Providers of electricity, distribution or tranmission services except as specified in Categories B&C; Providers of Peak Load Shedding (PLS) equipment and/or techniques- $5,000/yr.

Category B - End users, competitive retail electricity providers, aggregators and curtailment service providers- $2,500/yr.

Category C - Municipal and cooperative utilities - $1,500/year

Category D - Others - Any company/organization with interest in the activities of the Alliance but not included in the top three categories - $1,000/yr. This may include government agencies as well as other not-for-profit groups, consultants, research organizations, etc..

To join or to request further information, please contact Elliot Boardman, executive director at (936) 271-5020 or eboardman@peaklma.com

Activities of PLMA

The Peak Load Management Alliance conducts two workshops/conferences each year. One will be scheduled prior to the summer cooling season, which is the usual time for the electricity price spikes to occur. At this event, plans to address electricity supply and demand for the coming summer will be presented and discussed. The other event will be scheduled in the fall, to review what happened in the previous summer. Measures taken to control price volatility will be discussed and evaluated.

Another activity of PLMA is to provide information on critical issues for the electricity industry. This activity may include:
white papers
newsletters
web workshops
training seminars

To subscribe to PLMA's announcements, send an email with your request and full contact information to eboardman@peaklma.com.