Demand response

Peak power pricing avoidance through demand response

Any commercial and industrial consumer will be planing to reduce peak tariff. Which is usually for 1-2 hours in the mornning and the evening when consumers can pay as high as INR 10-INR 12 per unit and risk load shedding. There are many strategies which consumers were exploring in the past , like installation of solar / wind , which has now evolved in complex contracts where consumers will ask DISCOM or RE developer to give a fixed RE power ( e.g 500MW) at a price of INR 4.5-IN R5.5 per unit , guaranteed for every hour of the day. There are also consumers who are installing BESS for peak hours tariff avoidance.

Demand response , often overlooked area is an option with least investment where you can save INR 1 / unit for 4 hours per day

A 50-100 MW Demend Reponse program, with each event lasting 2 hours as "event-based" Demand Response (Curtailable load management) and 3 hours event in "time-based" (Critical Peak Pricing) Demand Response for selective days in a year is targeting LT and HT consumers, could potentially generate total saving of ~Crores for consumer and DISCOM in a span of 3 years, assuming incentive of INR 1.00/kWh is provided to the participating consumers under both the types of DR programs.

Consumer participation is necessary in demand response program by DISCOM

Load profile at a typical DISCOM which showd during peak hours (1700 hours to 2200), demand met is lower than actual supply of energy

The graph above shows Quantum of short-term power purchase increases during peak period of a day (1700 Hours to 2200 Hours), when power is expensive at market. Daily load profile of DISCOM varies upto 64% with peak demand 1.7 times the minimum demand , this leads to high unplanned tariff leading to expensive electricity tariff to the consumer. Hence consumer and DISCOM must work together for demand response and share the benifits. In addition , Load shedding observed during few hours of the day only (0200 – 0300 hours, 0700-0800 hours, 1300-1400 hours and 1800-2000 hours) which is another reason to co benifit.

**DISCOM has several challanges which need your ( commercial and industrial consumer ) participation and sharing co benifits.
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• Demand is Recorded higher in Monsoon season (July to October)
• > 50% of the annual short-term power is purchased during monsoon season.
• Load shedding instances highest during April to October (>145 hours).
• Load shedding observed during few hours of the day only (0200 – 0300 hours, 0700-0800 hours, 1300-1400 hours and 1800-2000 hours).
• Duration of load shedding in FY23: ~1,658 hours (19% of the year), maximum quantum: 600 MW

DISCOM faces Deviation Settlement losses

• Deviation of w.r.t. schedule was higher from FY19 to FY22 resulting in penalty on commercial consumer for~INR 40 Crore every year. for some DISCOMs
• Deviation handled well during FY23 resulting into incentives received by consumer (~4.71 Crores in one case we supported).

**Pilots we can support you for demand response

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- DISCOM side

- Consumer Side side

Pilots to support demand response at Consumer side

If you are a solution provider and have a solid equipment / solution to offer reach out to me at [email protected]