Demand response: A win-win solution to climate and energy price crises
Governments around the world share two problems right now: climate change and soaring energy prices. Investment in renewables and in energy efficiency are commonly and rightly touted as a solution to both. A third solution, known as “demand response”, gets less attention.
Citizens want enough electricity to keep the lights on and governments have tried to give them that by supplying enough electricity to meet demand. But people’s demand for electricity is not constant, it goes up and down throughout a day and throughout the year.
In richer countries, many people fire up their air conditioning, switch on their lights and plug in their electric vehicle when they get back from work. After dinner, they turn on their dishwasher and they open the fridge during the advert break for Game of Thrones.
Governments have to provide enough electricity to meet not just the average electricity use but the peak electricity use – half-time in the Superbowl on a boiling hot day. This is when grid operators call on the dirtiest, least efficient and most expensive generators.
