Quantifying the costs of Demand Response for industrial businesses

This paper quantifies the costs that occur when implementing and using Demand Response (DR) in industrial businesses. Firstly, the three cost categories investments, fixed and variable costs are derived from the literature. Costs of DR with process technologies can be quantified within the literature review. Secondly, findings from 16 semi-structured interviews allow quantifying the costs of DR with cross-sectional technologies. In summary, the paper shows that in terms of process technologies, variable opportunity costs are the most important type of cost, while investments and annual fixed costs are negligible. The opposite applies for cross-sectional technologies. Investments and annual fixed costs are of relevance. Variable costs are rather low. The results of a profitability calculation show that Demand Response can be economical.