Ernst & Young
Omar Al-Juburi is a partner at Ernst & Young LLP and serves as EY Americas Power & Utilities Technology Consulting Leader.
Anthony Natoli is EY Americas Energy Optimization and Digital Grid Leader. Contributor Jeff Miller leads Americas Power & Utilities Strategy Realized practice at EY-Parthenon.
At a time when nationwide electricity demand is expected to increase beyond expectations, utilities are increasingly relying on load flexibility programs to maintain grid reliability. These programs tap into the available capacity from customer-owned distributed energy resources to prevent blackouts during peak load periods, enhance grid operations, and ultimately lower energy costs for both consumers and utility companies through capital deferment.
That said, many utilities have not prioritized or expanded their demand response portfolios to keep up with the state-of-the-art, that is, technology-agnostic, localized and performance-based program designs of the European market. Why?
The answer varies by jurisdiction, but the overall themes are the lack of regulatory motivation and utility resource adequacy needs. More recently, the inflationary economic cycle is creating tough choices that draw attention away from demand management programs as a future-proof solution.