Demand response helps utilities optimize their energy delivery and manage energy demand, thereby improving the reliability and efficiency of the grid. GridPoint provides automated demand response with customized load curtailment to minimize the impact on the business.
Understanding demand response isn’t always simple. In short, utilities are required to provide commercial, industrial, and residential energy consumers with reliable energy around the clock. To do so, utility companies look at trends in their service territories and work to match energy supply with the highest expected energy demand that might be needed at a given time. This usually means excess energy is available that isn’t used.
However, on very hot summer days or during an extreme winter storm, homeowners and businesses use more energy than usual to heat or cool their buildings, exhausting the available energy supplied by their utility, and putting stress on the grid. It is during these peak periods when the demand for energy exceeds a utility’s energy supply, which may cause severe electricity disruptions like brownouts and blackouts.