Following huge investments in Saudi Arabia's infrastructure, the Saudi Consolidated Electricity Co. in the western region (SCECO-WEST) has experienced an unprecedented load growth in the last two decades. This growth prompted SCECO-WEST to consider regulating the pattern and time of the customer's load on the network. This trend, along with the pressure in the electricity utility business, led the utility to conduct a short-term load reduction study, which recommended the use of demand-side management (DSM).

SCECO-WEST took a product survey to determine the best available technologies that were cost-effective and friendly in terms of customers' lifestyles and to find a system with simple architecture that met the utility's objective.