A recent Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables report forecasts that by 2023 the United Stated will reach 88 gigawatts of residential flexibility potential.
Flexibility (also called demand flexibility) is the ability of hardware and software to come together to create load shapes which make it possible to shift demand and harness distributed resources. Flexibility benefits the grid and is cost-effective . Utilities and market operators favor systems with high demand flexibility as these can offer “non-wire alternatives” than can defer large infrastructure investments.
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The United States currently has nearly 30 million distributed generation and grid-connected devices installed in its homes. Millions more devices are anticipated to be added by 2023. This magnitude of hardware and software would increase the potential flexibility available to both consumers and the electric grid.
Increasing consumer interest in smart home devices, home energy storage and electric vehicle charging is driving growth of residential flexibility. Supporting this are new regulations being released which enable flexibility to grow beyond the traditional electric grid’s demand response program. New policy frameworks are emerging to support the growing number of grid-connected devices.
[Source: GreenTech Media]
