Estimating the impacts of direct load control programs using GridPIQ, a web-based screening tool

In direct load control (DLC) programs, utilities can curtail the demand of participating loads to contractually agreed-upon levels during periods of critical peak load, thereby reducing stress on the system, generation cost, and required transmission and generation capacity. There may be a shift of load proportional to the interrupted load to the times before or after a DLC event, resulting in a new load profile shape characteristic of each program. However, the significant and unintuitive repercussions of DLC programs extend far beyond changes to load profile shape. Tools that can quantify the impacts of DLC programs on the bulk power system, including emissions, fossil fuel costs and required ramping are currently lacking. The Grid Project Impact Quantification (GridPIQ) screening tool includes a Direct Load Control module, which takes into account project-specific inputs and customer behavior, along with the larger system context in order to quantify the impacts of a given DLC program. This allows users (utilities, researchers, etc.) to quickly specify DLC programs and compare their impacts, informing program design and justification.