Achieving success "on demand"

Demand response has significant potential--in Singapore and many other markets--but there are a number of critical success factors, said Michael Zammit. The Principal of Market Development at EnerNOC spoke at today's Singapore Electricity Roundtable taking place under the Singapore International Energy Week.

Zammit highlighted successful examples of demand response in Australia and New Zealand, including commercial buildings, utility providers such as water pumping facilities, and community amenities such as regional hospitals.

Demand response allows consumers to adjust their electricity use according to market signals. Reductions in consumption can be in the form of a curtailment or self generation, and can be automatically or manually performed.

Zammit said the critical success factors for demand response include:

• Putting in place an appropriate payment scheme to sufficiently incentivise consumers to participate

• The availability of long-term contracts from retailers or demand response aggregators

• An adequate infrastructure and system in place to provide real-time monitoring and feedback to the grid and market, for instance, 1-minute monitoring and communication interface with the grid

• Automatic dispatch, if practical

Zammit said demand response also has the benefit of improving system reliability because, unlike generation, it does not depend on gas supplies and is a viable alternative to dual fuel generation. Furthermore, unlike generation, there are no forced outages and transmission losses for demand response.

Zammit pointed out, however, that notwithstanding its benefits, a reliable demand response system requires significant infrastructure support including real-time smart metering technology at the consumer's end and a comprehensive energy management software platform. In providing the required technology support for demand response, EnerNoc's demand response programmes have included projects with the National Grid in the UK, the National Electricity Market in Australia, and the provision of capacity in the emergency load response programme for the PJM in the US.

S Iswaran, Minister, Prime Minister's Office & Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade & Industry, announced at the opening of SIEW 2012 on Monday that the Singapore government will has started public consultations on the introduction of demand response.

BY : Chua Shen Hwee, EMA