Literally, management of demand for energy. Usually capitalized when referring to the energy industry. DSM is an ancillary service offered by utilities, energy suppliers or private companies as a value-added service to assist the customer with getting the best value from their energy expenses. DSM services can include everything from efficiency-related planning assistance for new construction to sourcing of alternative suppliers to consulting on conservation programs to full management of a company's energy efficiency programs.

Six specific objectives have been defined by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) as falling within the scope of DSM: load reduction (conservation), load shifting (reorganizing demand to better suit moment-to-moment supply), peak-clipping (reducing peak demand levels), valley-filling (increasing base demand levels, usually by shifting peak demand to periods of low demand), load growth (encouraging or helping to limit increases in energy consumption) and flexible load shape (easy redistribution of power requirements to different times).

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