Even though distributed computing and two-way communication with the customer is becoming a reality for many energy distribution companies, there is still a need to develop methodologies for more efficient energy management. In this paper we discuss current approaches to demand management, and then present ideas from other areas applied in energy management. We introduce concepts such as computational markets and software agents in this context. In addition, methods entirely based on distributed problem solving to address the computationally hard problems of resource allocation with vast number of clients are described. We also discuss how these methods can be used to perform cost/benefit analysis of demand management.