Demand side response performance assessment: An impact analysis of load profile accuracy on DSR performances

Demand side response (DSR) is expected to bring benefits in lowering or deferring energy costs, deferring network infrastructure investment and reducing customers' bills. However, very little evidence to suggest DSR can perform as expected. Therefore, this paper for the first time assesses the differences between realistic and expected DSR performance for domestic customers. In detail, it compares realistic load profiles and typical load profiles used by industry. Then, DSR performances are examined using in-home battery, time-of-use tariffs and energy management system. The assessment is conducted on 1) the differences between realistic DSR performances and expected performances driven by typical load profiles; 2) the investigation of the DSR performances driven by realistic load profiles; and 3) the impacts of load profiles' characteristics to the DSR performances. The results reveal the DSR derived from estimated load profiles overestimates the benefits to customers, more accurate load profiles is essential to DSR performance and infer future DSR designs on realistic load profile representation and load characteristic investigation.