Demand Response for Ancillary Services

Many demand response resources are technically capable of providing ancillary services. In some cases, they can provide superior response to generators, as the curtailment of load is typically much faster than ramping thermal and hydropower plants. Analysis and quantification of demand response resources providing ancillary services is necessary to understand the resources’ economic value and impact on the power system. Methodologies used to study grid integration of variable generation can be adapted to the study of demand response. In the present work, we describe and implement a methodology to construct detailed temporal and spatial representations of demand response resources and to incorporate those resources into power system models. In addition, the paper outlines ways to evaluate barriers to implementation. We demonstrate how the combination of these three analyses can be used to assess economic value of the realizable potential of demand response for ancillary services. Index Terms—Aggregation, ancillary services, demand response, demand-side storage, electricity markets, institutional barriers, operating reserves, system flexibility, smart grid.