Demand Response

THE PROBLEM OF BALANCING ENERGY SUPPLY AND DEMAND

The wind does not always blow. The sun does not always shine. Renewable energy is not always reliable. And that makes balancing generation and load on the nation’s power grid problematic.

Problem #1: Matching supply (generation) to demand  (load). To address the variability of renewable energy generation, a region can either reserve more predictable generation sources, such as fossil fuel-fired plants, or adjust load. Such load adjustments are called demand response.

We were asked by a large federal utility to help develop funding and manage multiple projects designed to answer technical and programmatic questions about implementing demand response in the Pacific Northwest.

The client wanted to establish a portfolio of demand response resources that would allow them to increase or decrease electrical load in response to variable renewable energy output, over-generation, system emergencies and critical peak events. They also wanted to test the joint use of increases and decreases in load with numerous customer utilities.

Problem #2: Satisfying multiple stakeholders and organizational silos.  The stakeholders were many, including renewable power generators, regional utilities, public interest groups, ratepayers and equipment manufacturers. All had their own areas of interest. And the idea of adjusting load rather than building new generation and transmission infrastructure involved a dramatic cultural shift.

We worked with regional utilities, public interest groups, early-stage demand response providers and equipment manufacturers to structure pilot demonstration projects to measure and test demand response events. Keeping the program flowing smoothly required significant communication and coordination, involving over 85 executives and subject matter experts throughout the agency, 18 regional utilities, nine public interest groups, eleven demand response providers and over 2000 end use consumers.

Problem #3: Turning solutions to problems #1 and #2 into action.  We designed, managed and assessed pilot projects to evaluate the feasibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness of demand response in the Pacific Northwest. The results of the pilot projects were positive and enlightening.

These projects provided a strong foundation for building a business plan proposing the expansion of demand response efforts throughout the Pacific Northwest.