2008-2010 Research Summary: Analysis of Demand Response Opportunities in California Industry

From 2008-2010, the Industrial Demand Response Team of the Demand Response Research Center (DRRC) continued its research into the potential for Demand Response (DR) and Automated Demand Response (Auto-DR) in the Industrial-Agricultural-Water (IAW) sector. Auto-DR refers to a technology and communications framework designed to:

• Provide customers with automated, electronic price and reliability signals;
• Provide customers with capability to automate customized DR strategies; and
• Automate DR, providing utilities with dispatchable operational capability similar to conventional generation resources.

Research continued into the implementation of DR and Auto-DR strategies in the three IAW sectors previously identified as having good potential for DR: refrigerated warehouses, data centers, and wastewater treatment. This included case studies and generation of sector specific research reports documenting details of facility characteristics and DR opportunities. The cement industry and agricultural irrigation were also identified as having DR potential, and were the subject of scoping studies.

As Auto-DR capabilities are strongly influenced by the sophistication of facility controls, research was also conducted to determine the state of controls in industrial facilities in California. This research resulted in a list of sector characteristics that appear to be conducive to DR along with the observation that case-by-case sub-sector analysis is often a necessary part of narrowing down focus areas.

Planned future research will deepen the knowledge of Auto-DR capabilities in the previously identified sectors, as well as broaden the scope of DR studies to include agricultural irrigation and other sectors identified by the control survey as having capacity for Auto-DR. Research will also be conducted into the potential for and implementation of shorter-notice, shorter-duration DR events.