3.10 Tariff and Market Issues

3.10.3 Demand Response (DR)

Demand response (DR) provides customers with energy pricing information for different times or incentive payments, thus permitting them to decide whether to reduce their loads, by how much and for how long. So, like load control, the purpose is to shift loads from on-peak to off-peak. However, unlike load control, any types of “controllable” load can be included, and the decision on whether or not to change the load is under the control of the customer, and is not directly controlled by the utility.

Since customers are not likely to watch these energy prices on a continuing basis, they are most likely to implement energy management systems with customer-specified responses to different levels and times of prices.

DR requires more automation than load control, since energy management systems must be able to affect the operation appliances (such as washing machines, thermostats, and clothes dryers) and systems (such as HVAC systems, water pumps, and certain industrial devices) as well as a way of providing pricing information to a large number of customers

The underlying objective of DR is to help customers understand that energy can have different prices at different times, and as a result to actively modify their patterns of energy usage in response to these pricing signals.