Jeremy Laundergan‘s article featured in Electric Energy Magazine.
Aligning Demand Response Capabilities with Appropriate Applications
For more than 100 years, electrical generation, transmission and distribution have been built to meet expected expansion in customer demand. However, this historical pattern is changing. Due to more efficient use of energy and conservation, load growth is decreasing or flatlining, and peak periods are shifting, due to societal behavioral changes (e.g., dual income households) and the emergence of distributed energy resources (DER). To adjust to the changing times, multiple industry efforts are underway, including grid modernization to make better use of technology and communication systems, to upgrade infrastructure to enable DER, to increase reliability and resilience, and to improve power quality. Demand Response (DR) is a component of these initiatives, with the intent of interacting with customers to adjust their energy usage in the never-ending challenge to balance electricity supply and demand.