Load Management - Demand Response Programs

Demand Response (DR) is being embraced worldwide as an effective way of lowering the wholesale cost of power and reducing the need to build additional capacity. In some cases, it’s even possible for DR to become a source of new revenue for participating organizations. For those organizations looking to proactively manage their energy consumption and costs, participating in a demand response program might make perfect sense.

As you consider incorporating DR into your energy cost management strategy, you have choices to move forward. By design, demand response programs enable participating organizations to reduce their consumption of electricity, typically during times of the year and day when electricity consumption has proved to be relatively high. Since a reduction in demand achieves the same goal as an equal increase in supply – but without the accompanying pollution or greenhouse gas emissions associated with many types of generation – demand response is a cleaner and more cost effective option whose time has come in Ontario.

Demand response is a flexible resource that provides significant benefits for participants and for system reliability. The Ontario Power Authority’s suite of Demand response programs offer organizations a number of scenarios in which they could participate:

Demand Response 1 – The Voluntary Peak Shedding Program
Demand Response 2 – The Contractual Load Shifting Program
Demand Response 3 – The Contractual Peak Shedding Program