At-A-Glance:
A recent Brattle Report dives deep into Load Flexibility – which is something power plants have been using alongside an increasing reliance on renewables so they can “start-and-stop” on short notice during peak hours of demand (depending when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, etc.).
Key Takeaways:
- Widespread load flexibility could shave 20% off peak demands and save consumers billions
- Flexible capacity increasingly seen as the efficient, cost-effective future of electricity generation in U.S.
- There is already a strong market for load flexibility operating as demand response, or simply, “DR”
Path to 100% Perspective:
“Load Flexibility” isn’t a term most Americans tend to throw around in conversations at cocktail parties. However, it is one of the major developments in the energy production sector in recent years, and Brattle calculated the potential gains from load flexibility through 2030 and concluded that an expansion of the market could satisfy close to one-fifth of total peak demand for electricity across the U.S. Read more about in a Vox article covering the report at “Using electricity at different times of day could save us billions of dollars.”