Taking Demand Response to the Next Level

摘要

TO LOOK AT THE POTENTIAL FOR A SMARTER MODEL FOR THE ELECTRIC grid, we should first look briefly at how our current system has been structured. In its February 2006 report to Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) defined demand response (DR) as “changes in electric usage by end-use customers from their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time, or to incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale market prices or when system reliability is jeopardized.” The model most of us think of—and which has existed for nearly half a century in some form or other—is utility direct load control (DLC). With DLC, the utility sees a system peak and starts cycling off controlled customer equipment. This has yielded positive results for utilities, reducing the need in some cases for additional generation.