A methodology to assess the potential of demand response of industry in Italy A methodology to assess the potential of demand response of industry in Italy

Abstract

One of the issues addressed by the transformation of the energy system towards an increased sustainability is represented by the potential role of industrial flexible electric loads to meet the growing needs for balancing electricity demand. However, such a flexibility is subject to a variety of constraints, which imply different types of potentials for different production process. Such a topic has already been extensively analysed in literature, showing that the most important obstacles to overcome are the risk of interrupting continuous process operations, the impact on product quality and the uncertainty on the reduction of energy costs and, consequently, on the economic convenience of the electrical flexibility. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate the potential of demand response in industry at local level: this allows the relevant stakeholders to perform an assessment of the intervention margins for the suspension of electricity supply for the various types of industrial processes in different sectors.