Demand side flexibility and responsiveness: Moving demand in time through technology

Abstract

Demand Side Response (DSR) consists of a set of programmes, policies and technologies that enable shifting energy demand in time with varying degrees of end user’s engagement. It is increasingly seen as the main tool for achieving flexible and responsive energy demand. The objective of this chapter is to move beyond existing approaches to better incorporate the material technological arrangements of appliances, infrastructures, and the social rhythms of everyday coordination into analysis of DSR in practice. In so doing we propose clearer definitions of both how flexibility and responsiveness should be understood. Taking the example of hotels as a site of energy demand, we detail which energy loads have potential for demand responsiveness and focus on questions of automation at different stages of the DSR process.