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Demand response workshop conducted jointly with IASS and the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU) in California
Agora Energiewende, IASS and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU), jointly held a workshop series in California in October 2013 on the topic of Demand Response.
Both Germany and California plan to increase the share of renewables in gross electricity consumption by 2020 to 35% and 33%, respectively. Due to the increasing proportion of photovoltaic and wind energy, additional flexibility options are required to provide firm capacity, to integrate excess energy and to ensure load following capability. Demand Response can be a cost efficient and environmentally friendly option, if the regulatory framework is adapted to the characteristics of flexible loads. Under the auspices of the IASS, in cooperation with Agora Energiewende and BMU, two workshops in San Francisco and Sacramento offered a platform for stakeholders to discuss various options for further developing the regulatory environment.
Alexandra Langenheld (Agora Energiewende), Benjamin Bayer and Dominik Schäuble (both IASS) and Steffen Jenner (BMU) jointly led the exchange among experts: Participants from the California side included one or more representatives of electric utilities (Pacific Gas & Electric, Sacramento Municipal Utility District), regulators and government agencies (California Public Utilities Commission, California Energy Commission, SF Environment), transmission system operators (California ISO), demand response aggregators (Enernoc), demand response consulting firms (Levy Associates) and scientific institutions (UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, UC Davis).
The workshops were made possible by the generous support of Transatlantic Climate Bridge.
A working paper associated with the workshops can be downloaded here.