Residential Demand Response

By working at Energy Curtailment Specialists, the country’s largest privately-owned demand response (DR) provider, it’s pretty common knowledge that our industry continues to strengthen.  Year-after-year we have seen continued growth; we track our increased presence in our current territories, become active in projects that were too big to grasp in the past, and we keep expanding into new areas of business, including blog writing. (thanks!)

So with the news Pike Research came out with a new report projecting that residential demand response would double in size globally by 2018, we could definitely see the feasibility and the potential.

Although ECS is currently focused exclusively on commercial demand response, the essential principles of DR are the same.  Once the appropriate metering equipment is installed, customers are able to monitor and curtail energy off of their load in hopes of reducing strain off the grid and giving them a more accurate projection of their billing every month.

If a company (or your home) is enrolled in a price-based program, your savings will depend solely on the prices you pay based on real-time pricing, critical-peak pricing, and time-of-use rates.  In comparison, incentive-based demand response, also known as a direct load control program, is designed to give customers load reduction incentives that are separate from, or in addition to, their electric rate.

Although the latter is the more commonly used form of DR in the United States, the study shows that price-based programs are expected to skyrocket globally in the next 5 years.  A main reason for the global boost stems from emerging markets in Europe and Asia increasing the number of price-based programs available to energy consumers in the immediate future.  As the old adage goes – knowledge is power – and there appears to be a concentrated effort to educate global markets that can provide great value in demand response in the near future.

Another critical factor for the projected 11.6% annual growth rate in residential DR is the continued emergence of smart meters, as alluded to earlier.  The advanced technology allows users to wirelessly track the same figures that the utility receives, greatly improving infrastructure and engaging the user more in the process.

Other factors in play include the emerging need to save money with the struggling global economy and an increasing demand for energy across the board.

Kristopher Settle
Energy Curtailment Specialists, Inc.

Kris can be found on Twitter and Google+.