Impact of Demand Response Implementation in India with Focus on Analysis of Consumer Baseline Load

The stochastic nature of renewable energy sources creates unpredictable variability making instantaneous demand and supply a big challenge. Demand response (DR) which is an intentional modification of consumer loads as per utility requirement can support the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, helping grid operators to quickly respond to power variability. Smart grids provide an opportunity for consumers to produce energy and feed it into the grid as well as control their energy requirement which is one of the important aspects of DR implementation. This paper provides an overview of various aspects of DR programs available in the literature from point of view of challenges, benefits, and applications. Various opportunities and challenges for DR deployment on renewable energy integration and smart grids from the Indian context are discussed in the work. The objective of the paper is to suggest drivers that will motivate DR deployment with effective renewable energy integration in the country. One of the important aspects of DR implementation in the country is to assess DR potential available among the different categories of consumers. Consumer baseline gives reference consumption which is used to assess DR potential. A case study has been conducted on one of the industrial feeders in Goa state to estimate consumer baseline load (CBL) using different methods. Average, maximum value, adjustment, and regression-based CBL estimation methods used for analysis are compared based on evaluated performance metrics. From the analysis, it is found that the adjustment method is most accurate for CBL estimation.