Demand response
Topic: Infrastructure: Transport, Communications and Energy · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Demand response means electricity users shift or cut their use at certain hours when the grid sends a signal. The signal can be a higher price at peak hours or a direct request from the grid operator. Normally, power plants change their output to follow what users demand. With demand response, users also adjust so that demand moves closer to supply. This matters more as solar and wind grow, because their output depends on the sun and the weather, not on when people need power. Demand response is one of the flexibility tools that helps the grid absorb this variable power without wasting it. Storage and flexible power plants are other such tools.
Example
From April 2024, India brought in a time-of-day (ToD) tariff for commercial and industrial consumers using 10 kW or more. Under this tariff, power costs more at peak hours and less during solar hours. Suppose a cold-storage unit moves its heavy cooling from the evening peak to midday. That shift is demand response: it uses cheap solar power and lowers the strain on the grid after sunset.
Don't confuse with
- Time-of-day tariff: this is a pricing tool. Demand response is the change in users' behaviour that such a price, or a grid signal, brings about.
- Grid curtailment: here the supply side adjusts. A plant is told to cut its output because the grid cannot take the power. Demand response adjusts the demand side instead, and can reduce the need for curtailment.