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Demand flexibility has emerged as a sort of a North Star as the electric industry considers how to address these major issues. Demand flexibility, rather than event-based curtailment, promises continual automation of demand-side loads to better align them with renewable energy supply.
Fremont, CA: Consumers have welcomed technologies ranging from smart speakers to doorbell cams and smart thermostats, and the topic of home automation has been on the increase over the past decade. Home automation has traditionally relied on devices that are linked to the Internet but not necessarily to each other, and automation to cut demand has typically relied on some very basic, fixed inputs such as time of day or occupancy.
At the same time, utilities have been dealing with an ever-increasing supply of renewable energy sources, which has been a net benefit for carbon reduction but faces engineering and pricing issues due to the inconsistent supply.
Demand response has been emphasized by grid operators and utilities as a demand-side solution to these issues. During moments of peak demand or when outages become a serious possibility, demand response in the residential sector has depended disproportionately on thermostat control. These programs have accomplished what they set out to do, but they will not be enough to achieve the lofty, yet necessary, goals of carbon neutrality and energy reliability.
Demand flexibility has emerged as a sort of a North Star as the electric industry considers how to address these major issues. Demand flexibility, rather than event-based curtailment, promises continual automation of demand-side loads to better align them with renewable energy supply.
So, why hasn't demand flexibility been achieved yet, and why aren't we seeing concrete moves toward reaching this goal in most utility resource plans?
For one thing, there are presently no scaled-up solutions for aggregating all loads in the home into a single connected and controllable interface in the residential sector. Smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) standards have failed to connect gadgets in the home and provide energy data that could be useful to utilities.
