Two residential-level ideas, dynamic pricing and time-of-use rates TOU , work similarly to buying off-peak airline fares. If you want to fly during peak times, you pay more. If you want to use your dishwasher during peak times, you pay more. With dynamic pricing, consumers are offered rate discounts during normal usage periods and charged higher rates during peak times.
Alternatively, TOU allows consumers to shift their usage patterns from high-price peak hours to less expensive off-peak hours by sharing information to make smart adjustments: A TOU meter at home tracks the total kWh energy usage over a period of time day, year.
You save money, and the grid saves power. In addition to residential efforts, there are companies emerging with the sole purpose of demand response. Companies called aggregators are stepping in to reduce grid loads by collect negawatts. A negawatt is a unit of power that is no longer needed, and aggregators sell them to regional Independent System Operators ISOs who use them to reduce the load on a specific part of the grid. One of the most exciting models of demand response is the smart grid and its connection to smart buildings.
A smart grid is the 21st century version of the current grid. Today's grid is one-way only: You turn on the television , and it brings the power. A smart grid would be a two-way communication system between provider and consumer. The structure of the grid is often described as similar to the Internet. In the same way every computer that accesses the Internet has an Internet address, the smart grid would have a web of access points that could be identified and contacted.
Through these contact points, the grid would automate the flow of electricity as needed, identify and isolate load problems; it would also be able to handle uneven supplies of energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. A smart grid talking to dumb terminals and appliances in a house can only accomplish so much. The grid may identify a load problem but without a smart building partner, it can do nothing but raise a red flag. Consumers are then told to reduce or turn off their energy usage.
When smart buildings are hooked up to a smart grid, the buildings respond to information received from the grid. Are electricity prices getting higher? The self-monitoring house automatically reacts by reducing the power usage -- maybe by turning down the thermostat or turning off the dishwasher.
Consumers ultimately have the power to turn the heat back up a few degrees if they prefer a warmer house. In a yearlong, small-scale study in homes on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, the Department of Energy DOE found that when consumers were equipped with smart electric meters, thermostats, water heaters and dryers, they reduced their energy usage and associated costs -- on average, participants saved 10 percent on their electricity bills, and there was a 15 percent reduction in peak load usage [source: Grist ].
Xcel Energy wants to turn Boulder, Colo. The city would receive upgrades to its existing power infrastructure from a blind, metering grid to an electrical system capable of providing real-time, two-way communications throughout its new smart grid. The benefit of demand response isn't just in the economic cost savings, but also in environmental costs. Demand response programs are being used by some electric system planners and operators as resource options for balancing supply and demand. Such programs can lower the cost of electricity in wholesale markets, and in turn, lead to lower retail rates.
DR typically involves paying some energy consumers to voluntarily cut or shift their use of power to better match supply. It can lower the amount of electricity required from the grid during peak periods, reducing the likelihood of a blackout, or to shift demand to off-peak periods, or when renewable energy output is high, to use excess electricity more efficiently.
It can even help to bring down wholesale electricity prices, which increase when demand is high. In Australia, demand response is used by grid operators to reduce or shift the demand for electricity or to help keep the grid stable. Our purpose is to support the global transition to net zero emissions by accelerating the pace of pre-commercial innovation, to the benefit of Australian consumers, businesses and workers. By connecting investment, knowledge and people to deliver energy innovation, we are helping to build the foundation of a renewable energy ecosystem in Australia.
We joined forces with the Australian Energy Market Operator AEMO in late to run a demand response trial to demonstrate how DR could play a role in managing electricity supply during extreme peaks such as summer heatwaves.
This page location is:. Sign In. About Careers Contact Investors bpa. A resource that allows end-use electric customers to reduce their electricity usage in a given time period, or shift that usage to another time period BPA DER Benchmarking Report glossary.
A program that compensates customers for minimizing their electricity load when instructed by BPA. This may occur during times of high power costs or when the electric grid reliability is threatened due to high seasonal demands. A program that enables industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential consumers to play a significant role in the operation of the electric grid by reducing their energy use during times of peak power demand in response to financial incentives, including time-based rates BPA DR fact sheet.
0コメント