Generally, when electricity demand rises in an area, we just fire up some source like a gas plant or a coal plant, or put more water through a hydroelectric dam, to produce more electricity to meet that demand. But what about other users voluntarily shifting their use to compensate for that rise in demand? This concept of Demand Response sounds simple, but until recent technological developments, like a smarter grid and rapid energy communication and control systems, it wasn’t feasible since the response time needed to be in minutes, not hours.
Some users can shift their energy usage to different times of the day to help offset spikes in demand. One such user, the Northern Pacific Paper Corporation (NORPAC) in Longview, Washington, is a giant consumer of electricity. NORPAC uses huge thermal mechanical pulping refiners, driven by over three dozen 6,000-horsepower motors. But not all of these motors need to operate at specific times of the day. So when demand suddenly rises, we can turn some of them off instead of firing up a coal plant.
As detailed in a recent article in Forbes, an energy company in the Pacific Northwest just demonstrated that Demand Response works really well. During a surprise test by the Bonneville Power Administration, Energy Northwest demonstrated that the Demand Response Aggregated Control System (DRACS) could be relied upon to handle rapid changes in electricity demand. As part of this demand response project, NORPAC agreed to let Energy Northwest shut down eight of their three dozen motors at a moment’s notice to reduce electricity demand. During the test, the DRACS system was able, through voluntary shut downs and supplemental battery storage, to free up 35 MW of electricity in 4 in minutes.
If we evolve our energy infrastructure as we should in the years to come, it will involve more than just a smart grid, but a smart total system. If a number of electricity users are able to take part in demand response, then the potential for electricity savings is large. We also won’t have to build as many new power plants, wind farms or solar arrays as we would otherwise have to build. Nor would we need as many new transmission lines or new pipelines. The savings could top $200 billion over the next 20 years if implemented across the country.
What potential does Demand Response have for meeting growing electricity demand? What can policymakers do to encourage projects like DRACS?
The Potential of Demand Response is enormous and also the saving in additional infrastructure, you are taking on a response of minutes, however there are new emerging ideas in power… Read more »
Electric vehicle charging is a future area for Demand Response. Charging EVs is usually not time critical. For example, a Tesla High Power Wall Charger can charge at the rate… Read more »
Hi Dan, You are totally correct, Electricity Vehicles charging and also supplying at the peak hours either Demand Response and Supply Response could create additional value for energy security and… Read more »
Demand Response (DR) is preferable to Supply Response (SR) for EVs. SR requires 2-way power inverters in the cars (an added expense and complication) and, more importantly, extra discharging and… Read more »
Electric Vehicles will create new flexible opportunities for Demand Response and Supply Response. All the industry is under development; utilities should change their business model and adapt themselves to the… Read more »
Demand response (DR) can play a significant role in optimizing energy resources, particularly as solar and wind loads on electricity grids increase. Grid operators manage load intermittency, unplanned outages and… Read more »
New analysis from The Brattle Group shows that price-based demand response can reduce peak demand by nearly 20%, with the largest potential in the residential class. Renewables integration creates a… Read more »
Dawn, Thank you for your comment. This new analysis from The Brattle Group is great, between lines you could discover that the actual utility business model must change urgently, new… Read more »
Great discussion! Yes, grouping large numbers of EVs (hundreds of thousands) are an interesting way to store and respond. I think Shanghai is doing this in a big way with… Read more »
We do not need to far to understand the potentialities of VGI (Vehicle-Grid Integration). Please find enclosed the “California Vehicle-Grid Integration (VGI) Roadmap: Enabling vehicle-based grid services” issued in February… Read more »
Nice to read about the positive potential of demand response. Thought you all might like to read similar thoughts from Jon Wellinghoff’s comments on a negative NERC report ….. “http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2015/02/the-great-epa-clean-power-plan-debate-conflicting-reports-raise-concerns-over-viability?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-February17-2015… Read more »
Indeed! The situation has changed so much it’s wrong to focus on past perspectives. We now have a plethora of tools to increase efficiency and demand response is one of… Read more »
Demand response is one of several schemes to keep supply and demand in balance, while maintaining an adequate reserve capability. The value of demand response would have to be measured… Read more »
Dear Herschel and All, The Distributed Energy Resources, the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), the Energy Storage, the Demand Response and the New Technologies for changing the current utility centralized approach are there.… Read more »