Awareness and attitudes towards demand response programs – a pilot study

Abstract

Electricity planning tends to focus on the generation options mix and largely relies on pre-defined assumption on the demand growth. However, energy end-use has a large potential for improvement and adaptation to the new challenges of the electricity system. The demand response (DR) strategies must then be properly considered in electricity decision making, as relevant options to deal with the variability of the system and ensure in balance at an affordable cost. Although this is not a new concept, the popularity of these DR programs is growing, driven by the increasing opportunities that emerged with smart grid appliances and also by their potential to support the integration of variable renewables generation. The consumer has then a key role on the effective implementation of these DR programs. However, the complexity of the DR topic can create barriers to the communication to public in general and consequently can limit the consumers understanding of the overall concepts and related technologies. This work aims to address this gap and presents the results of an exploratory study supported on a questionnaire directed towards an academic sample of students from one university in Portugal. The results demonstrate that DR solutions are well accepted and could be implemented at large scale, although with limited flexibility. Aspects related to cost savings, contribution to environmental protection and reduction of importations at the national level are found to be important motivating factors, to be explored in future communication actions. However, it should be highlighted that these results cannot be dissociated from the population of the study, which target mainly well informed, young people with a high appeal for new technologies.