Alliance for an Energy-Efficient Economy (AEEE), one of the leading organizations in India creating awareness about energy efficiency as a resource, today released a report titled “Roadmap for Demand Flexibility in India” in collaboration with AutoGrid. The report highlights the wide range of possibilities that Demand Response (DR) offers that can effectively help electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) in India handle their increasing future electricity demand while still operating reliably towards a greener grid. It further states that DISCOMs should carve out the ideal consumer centric DR strategy, comprising a portfolio of customizable options.
Senior Officials at the report launch on Roadmap for Demand Flexibility in India by Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE)
Speaking during the report launch, Dr. Satish Kumar, President, and Executive Director, AEEE, said, “Given the increasing electricity demand in India, it is imperative that Demand Response is brought to the mainstream by the regulators, system operators and DISCOMs to effectively manage demand. Today, as the power generation is getting greener, yet more intermittent and had to predict, it is absolutely critical to focus on flexible demand as a balancing resource and need to be included in Integrated Resource Planning process and by enabling performance based regulations. For this to happen at scale, consumers should be allowed to participate in the energy and ancillary markets. Time is right to leverage advanced metering infrastructure and other innovative technologies to roll out well-designed DR programmes. Enriched with AutoGrid’s global expertise and pioneering experience, this report will serve as a roadmap and guide for key actors responsible for reliable and cost effective operation in a low carbon grid.”
According to the report,
Scalable DR programmes can become successful if they are designed to create win-win situations for both consumers and DISCOMs.
Leveraging the energy data collected by smart meters to segment the consumers and identify potential target consumers is a useful tactic.
Initial interventions can be facilitated by the use of Behavioural DR measures which can be further scaled to include more advanced automation options like Flexible DR.
“We are excited to partner with AEEE to lay out a clear roadmap to manage the growing peak demand related problems and dependence on coal or other fossil based sources,” says Vish Ganti, VP and General Manager of AutoGrid. “Tapping into the power of collective human action, DISCOMS can create a strong customer value proposition for smart metering investments, Virtual Power Plants and incentivize good behavioral actions,” he added.
Over the past 5 years, a 50 percent increase in households with ACs has added significant new cooling load to already increasing peak demand. This growth however can be turned into an effective resource by DISCOMs though intelligent load control with built in DR and Wi-Fi enabled plug-ins as part of a Virtual Power Plant program.
Demand flexibility through effective DR programmes provide the pathway to consumer participation in mechanisms for grid support services. Today, behavioural DR programmes constitute the bulk of that potential and are easy to tap into because of the relatively lower running costs. Subsequently, with the rise of controllable loads and smart appliances, advanced Auto-DR, called Flexible DR (Flex-DR), should be explored. Flexible demand can go a long way in ensuring the supply-demand equilibrium in grid operation with variable supply and increasing demand.
Additionally, well designed, strategic DR initiatives will lead to higher energy efficiency directly contributing to consumer savings and meeting the target of net zero emissions set during the COP26 summit. As per the report, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has emphasized the crucial role of energy efficiency (EE) in India’s energy transition, and it is estimated that emission reduction due to EE equates to 50 percent of India’s total emission reduction targets.
Nevertheless, to sustain operations in the future and achieve the goal of affordable and reliable energy supply, DISCOMs need to think beyond EE programs and take a proactive role in engaging with consumers. In this regard, DR presents a leapfrog opportunity for DISCOMs to better adapt to the realities of a cleaner grid and high electrification of demand.
About AEEE
Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) is one of the leading organisations in India that works on creating awareness about energy efficiency as a resource. It is a policy support and energy efficiency market enabler with a not-for-profit motive. We enable and support for data-driven and evidence-based energy efficiency policies and research. AEEE is a convening platform bringing key energy stakeholders-industry, government, civil society, and professionals together to engage in a constructive dialogue to influence effective and impactful policies and build a robust ecosystem for effective implementation. At AEEE we undertake cutting edge, research-based projects for global bilateral, multilateral, foundations, and government agencies specializing in the areas of Sustainable Cold Chain, Advance Technologies, Sustainable Building Designs, State and Local Action, Power Utility and eMobility, and Energy Data Services and Sustainable Aviation.
About AutoGrid
AutoGrid’s mission is accelerating adoption of sustainable energy to combat climate change. With over a decade of pioneering experience across the globe, AutoGrid offers renewable project developers, asset owners, energy-as-a-service companies, utilities, and electricity retailers the ability to build, own, operate, and participate in intelligent and scalable Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) enabling them to disrupt the dependency on fossil-fuel based energy. AutoGrid’s AI-driven software makes electric vehicles, batteries, roof-top solar, utility-scale wind and other distributed energy resources (DERs) smarter. By enabling prediction, optimization, and real-time control of millions of energy assets at an unprecedented scale, AutoGrid is making the vision of a decentralized, decarbonized, and democratized new energy world a reality. AutoGrid FlexTM platform is currently contracted to manage over 6,000 MW of Distributed Energy Assets in 15 countries-everything from electric vehicles, storage or rooftop solar, to microgrids in campuses or industrial sites, and utility scale storage and renewable farms-and is ranked as the #1 Virtual Power Plant and the #1 Distributed Energy Resources Management Platform in the world (according to the latest global ranking by industry-leading research and analysis firm Guidehouse Insights).
Additional info can be found at: www.auto-grid.com.