I will be honest, I groaned when I saw the topic for this blog. A Google image search rewarded me with only a plethora of graphs and charts and a handful of adverts and a video search didn’t seem to offer up anything much more interesting.
I hope they are happy because they are saving electricity.
Okay lets give the topic a chance, maybe it is only uninteresting because I know so little and as Sir Francis Bacon said, knowledge is power. Tell me Electric man what exactly is Demand Response?
Electric man says “I am shocked you have to ask.”
Hurhur Electric man. I don’t see Batman making puns like that. But seriously…
“Well,” says Electric Man ” Most of us live on what we call the grid. This is where we get our electricity from. Occasionally the “demand” for electricity exceeds what the power plants feeding the grid can supply and something has to be done.This is where the “response” bit comes in.”
Response huh? That sounds more immediate than long term energy conservation methods such as using energy star appliances or those new -fangled incandescent bulbs .
Electric Man says “It sure is. In this case Electricity consumers actively lower their power usage when the grid is being overly stressed, or in some cases supplement the grid using their own generators until the energy crisis has passed.”
(I found this explanation provided by PG&E helpful http://www.pge.com/mybusiness/energysavingsrebates/demandresponse/whatisdemandresponse/ )
I think I have a better grasp now. Thanks Electric man, I can take it from here.Now that we have a better idea of what we are talking about lets look at one of those charts I mentioned earlier.
Cpower is an energy management company that works with companies to optimize energy efficiency. The chart they provide on their website (shown above) shows how when the Grid becomes stressed the “client” or energy consumer can take actions to relieve the stress by shutting down elevators, “pre-cool” the building and turn off excess lighting. The graph below the images shows the load on the grid being lightened (though I am guessing this is due to multiple sources of high energy consumption taking action, not just one).
Wikipedia’s Demand Response page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_response ) talks about how there are three different types of demand response.
1. Emergency Demand Response- This demand response is used in, hm, oh yes, emergency type situations, As mentioned earlier it is employed when the grid or parts of the grid is in danger of losing power because of “peak demand”.
2. Economic demand response- This demand response allows companies, manufacturers, etc. to use less power when the power they would be using outweighs the amount of profit they would gain from not using the excess power.
3. Ancillary services demand response- “consists of a number of specialty services that are needed to ensure the secure operation of the transmission grid and which have traditionally been provided by generators.”
The following video though terrible, illustrates how automated demand response systems work.
demand response
Alright, clearly demand response is a pretty well thought out method for dealing with our society’s high power demands. I wonder though if we implement more long term power saving methods like the ones I mentioned earlier, if we will even have to worry about Demand Response in the long term? What about if we feed the grid? Personally, I have always liked the idea of everyone feeding the grid through the use of solar power. This method would take the greatest burden off the grid. I know that some governments including ours are working towards implementing this idea.
Well, although demand response isn’t exactly riveting, I feel better having some idea of what exactly it means and can hopefully apply it to larger contexts in the future and as G.I Joe says,
Knowing is half the battle.(the other half is apparently red and blue lasers.)
