The Economic Impact of Demand-Response Programs on Power Systems. A survey of the State of the Art

Demand Response (DR) programs, which aim to reduce electricity consumption in times of high energy cost or network constraints by allowing customers to respond to price or quantity signals, are becoming very popular in many electricity systems, frequently associated to smart-grid developments. These programs could entail significant benefits for power systems and the society as a whole. Assessing the magnitude of these benefits is crucial to determine their convenience, especially when there are non negligible costs associated to their implementation (if advanced metering infrastructure or control technologies are needed). Quantifying DR benefits requires first to estimate the changes in demand patterns that can potentially be achieved and then to evaluate the effects of those changes on the complex behavior of power systems, neither of these analyses being trivial. This paper presents a survey of the state of the art of these assessments.