Evaluating demand response programs by means of key performance indicators

Demand response (DR) has received significant attention in recent years and several DR programs are being deployed and evaluated worldwide. DR systems provide a wide range of economic and operational benefits to different stakeholders of the electrical power system including consumers, generators and distributors. DR can be achieved through a number of different mechanisms such as direct-load-control, incentives, pricing signals, or a combination of these schemes. Due to the remarkable variation in demand response systems, it becomes a challenge to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different DR programs holistically. In this work, we define a number of different performance metrics that could be used to evaluate DR programs based on peak reduction, demand variation and reshaping, and economic benefits.