Activating electricity system demand response for commercial and industrial organisations

ABSTRACT

With the rapid uptake of renewable energy generation and increasing price volatility, there are multiple opportunities emerging for businesses to earn additional revenue and reduce electricity bills by implementing demand response. However, commercial and industrial consumer implementation of demand response is not well understood and largely absent in energy management guidelines, which focus on reducing energy consumption and driving energy efficiency. Based on interviews with managers from 24 commercial and industrial businesses, we describe a practical implementation framework for demand response. The framework identifies unique implementation features for demand response - the activation steps. Energy management guidelines may have underemphasised approaches to demand response and inclusion of its unique features for businesses because benefits to be gained from demand response have focussed on benefits for the utilities in the electricity system, not benefits for individual businesses. The article concludes there is an opportunity for market operators to encourage organisations who produce energy management guidelines to include demand response, to promote awareness of the opportunities for businesses and provide practical guidance for implementation, therefore providing support for greater renewable energy penetration and reduced energy costs for businesses.

KEYWORDS:

• Demand response
• flexible demand
• demand management
• commercial andindustrial consumers
• energy management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).