Incentive based emergency demand response effectively reduces peak load during heatwave without harm to vulnerable groups

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 6202 - 11
• Main Authors: Wang, Zhaohua, Lu, Bin, Wang, Bo, Qiu, Yueming (Lucy), Shi, Han, Zhang, Bin, Li, Jingyun, Li, Hao, Zhao, Wenhui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 04.10.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 706/4066/4065; 706/4066/4074; 706/4066/4076; At risk populations; Electric power demand; Electricity; Emergency response; Energy management; Extreme heat; Heat waves; High temperature; Households; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Peak load; Reduction; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Statistical analysis
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41970-8
• ISSN: 2041-1723

The incentive-based emergency demand response measure serves as an important regulatory tool during energy system operations. However, whether people will sacrifice comfort to respond to it during heatwave and what the effect on heat vulnerable populations will be are still unclear. A large-scale emergency demand response pilot involving 205,129 households was conducted in southwestern China during continuous extreme high temperatures in summer. We found that the incentive-based emergency demand response causes a statistically significant decline in electricity use with no additional financial burden on vulnerable groups. The electricity conservation potential of urban households was higher than that of rural households. Households with children did not respond to the emergency demand response, while the response of households with elderly individuals proved to be more positive. The repeated and frequent implementation of this policy did not result in an attenuation of the regulatory effect. This research can serve as a reference for countries with similar regulated power markets. Co-lead authors Wang, Zhang, Qiu, Lu and their colleagues model an incentive-based emergency demand response to counter heatwaves. The modelled responded leads to the peak load reduction of 7.32% for the covered households, and can achieve a 1.02% peak load reduction when reaching a wide audience with no additional financial burden on vulnerable groups.