A New Definition and Research Agenda for Demand Response in the Distributed Energy Resource Era

Johanna L. Mathieu, Gregor Verbič, Thomas Morstyn, Mads Almassalkhi, Kyri Baker, Julio Braslavsky, Kenneth Bruninx, Yury Dvorkin, Gregory S. Ledva, Nariman Mahdavi, Hrvoje Pandzic, Alessandra Parisio, Vedran Perić

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Abstract

Demand response is a concept that has been around since the very first electric power systems. However, we have seen an explosion of research on demand response and demandside technologies in the past 30 years, coinciding with the shift towards liberalized/deregulated electricity markets and efforts to decarbonize the power sector. Now we are also seeing a shift towards more distributed/decentralized electric systems; we have entered the era of “distributed energy resources”, which require new grid management, operational, and control strategies. Given this paradigm shift, we argue that the concept of demand response needs to be revisited, and more carefully/consistently defined to enable us to better utilize this massive resource for economic, technical, environmental, and societal aims. In this paper, we survey existing demand response definitions, highlight their shortcomings, propose a new definition, describe how this new definition enables us to more effectively harness the value of demand response, and provide a demand response research agenda informed by a discussion of existing demand response
barriers and enablers.
Original languageEnglish
JournalIEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 19 Mar 2025

Keywords

  • demand response
  • distributed energy resources
  • load control
  • load aggregation
  • demand-side flexibility

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