Demand Response Programs in Conventional and Smart Grid Electricity Networks: Chronological Development in Different Regions

Abstract

Nowadays countries around the world are using more renewable energies such as solar and wind energies. The most important issue of the renewable energies is that their output is intermittent. So, there has to be a way to make a balance between demand and production in different situations. Demand response programs are the key issue to overcome this problem. In electricity distribution, demand response programs can improve the satisfaction of customers by using bidirectional communication between supply and demand. These programs provide a variety of services from installation of load limiters to Direct Load Control (DLC) or many activities designed for influencing the habits of customers and their electricity consumption. This paper overviews the history of demand response programs and the practices of demand response in the United States as well as some other countries in Europe and Asia. Literature shows that the demand response program is successful in many countries to reduce the outage and control the demand in response to generation condition. However, there still exist some key issues such as equipment cost and lack of standardization.