Demand Response programs are management measures used by power companies to guide electricity users to adjust their electricity consumption habits. It is done by reducing peak demand or shifting it to off-peak periods by providing incentives such as price or tariff reductions. This is a common practice in the electricity industry worldwide to suppress peak demand, similar to buying insurance for power supply and unrelated to power rationing.
When the electricity demand on the consumer side is too high or there is an excess of supply on the supplier side, it will lead to an imbalance between supply and demand, affecting the stability of the power system. Generally speaking, what often happens is that the electricity demand from the consumers’ side exceeds the supply, leading to blackouts. At this point, if energy users can temporarily reduce their energy consumption, the power grid will be able to get back into a balance between supply and demand and maintain power stability.
In response to net-zero carbon emissions and energy transition, properly implementing Demand Response can avoid the high cost of building additional power plants, making it an increasingly important resource in the power system.
According to a report by the International Energy Agency, “the milestone for net-zero scenarios has 500GW of demand response brought onto the market by 2030, corresponding to a tenfold increase in deployment levels in 2020”. Therefore, we need more flexible power resources for demand response.
Demand Response provides a brand new opportunity for commercial, institutional, and industrial organizations in face of the energy transition. Businesses can earn a brand new revenue stream by using flexible energy resources to support the grid and maintain reliable electricity. Effectively utilizing existing assets while improving energy efficiency is a practical action toward sustainability and adopting a circular economy business model.
What are the benefits of Demand Response?
- Maximize payments to your bottom line: Enel X manages your participation from start to finish, ensuring you earn the highest possible financial reward.
- Improve your facilities’ resilience: In addition to the payments, demand response participants also receive advanced notification of grid stability issues, enabling them to proactively protect their facilities from potential power outages.
- Support your community: Your participation helps maintain reliable electricity in your community, and helps to keep the lights on.
What can I expect during a dispatch event?
- Notification: When the grid operator anticipates high demand on the grid, it dispatches the Enel X network into action. Enel X will notify you via email, phone or SMS, depending on your preferences, to inform you when the dispatch will begin.
- Response: At the start of the dispatch, your facility will reduce its electricity usage according to your predetermined plan - either manually or automatically through our Network Operations Center (NOC).
- Support: Before, during, and after a dispatch, our NOC remains in communication with your facility. Our staff is available 24x7x365, supporting you to ensure that you achieve the highest possible levels of performance and payments.
How do I participate?
Enel X makes participation easy. We take care of the complex details so you can stay focused on running your business.
- Our expert team will work with you to identify your energy reduction potential and create a strategy that delivers maximum value with minimum impact to your operations.
- In some cases, we install necessary metering devices at your facility to establish communication with our Network Operations Center (NOC), so we can monitor your energy consumption levels in real-time.
- Your site is then enrolled and ready to respond when a dispatch begins. Our team remains on standby to support you at all times.
- Throughout the process, we fully manage enrolment, measurement, verification and payments on your behalf.
What types of energy reductions can I make?
Enel X has extensive experience creating energy reduction strategies that work within the operational limitations of a wide variety of facilities, including cold storage, manufacturing, food processing, data centers and technology companies, universities, shopping centres, office buildings and more. Common reduction examples include:
- Switch from electricity grid usage to onsite generation (BESS or backup generator)
- Modify manufacturing processes
- Adjust HVAC equipment
- Turn down pumps
- Change settings in industrial freezers
- Reduce non-essential lighting
Customers often facilitate dispatch participation by simply shifting many of their energy-intensive processes by a few hours.
