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Demand Response
Enspiria has worked with many industry leading clients in the area of demand response. Our staff has been involved in load control, load management and demand side management long before dynamic pricing was instituted and "demand response" became an industry term.
By allowing the utility customer to make decisions on reductions in their energy use, demand response (DR) can lead to a deferment of a utility's investment in generation. Demand response includes the technologies and pricing structures that encourage consumers to reduce their demand, particularly during peak-load periods.
DR technologies include smart thermostats and in-home devices displaying pricing signals, critical price alerts and endpoint load management devices such as air conditioning cycling switches. The DR pricing structures include critical-peak pricing and real-time pricing as well as traditional time-of-use and interruptible rates.
The benefit of implementing DR is the reduction in customer energy usage, increased system reliability and infrastructure deferral or optimization.
There are increasing synergies and joint business benefits between DR and smart metering initiatives. For example, utilities can leverage smart metering communication infrastructures for DR program execution (WAN, LAN and evolving Home Area Networking and smart grid). And AMI profiling data can be used to enhance DR program design, and AMI interval data can be used to verify DR customer participation and program effectiveness.
Our DR staff maintains knowledge in a range of technologies, including those offered by:
Aclara, Cannon (Cooper Power), Comverge and Corporate Systems Engineering (CSE).
Extending Demand Response to the Smart Grid
Demand response can be extended from large industrial customers to a substantial portion of the system load in a smart grid. During times of peak demand smart grid connected air conditioning, pool pumps and other appliances could receive a digital message from the grid requesting them to curtail power usage.
As intermittent renewable power sources grow DR may become increasingly important to effective management of the electric grid. For example, in a region heavily reliant on wind, DR can absorb excess power (e.g., recharging vehicle batteries). Likewise DR can shed demand when the wind becomes insufficient.
As a key aspect of smart grid, DR is a key portion of the solution for meeting future energy requirements and reducing carbon emissions.
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