Ex-post evaluation of Interruptible Load programs with a system optimisation perspective

The deployment of demand response in reserve markets has been widely discussed. Interruptible Load programs contract demand capacity from consumers in exchange for fixed and variable payments. System operators contract these resources to increase system resilience and use them for economic purposes. Although common, no ex-post evaluations of the program's performance and efficiency exists in the literature. To fill this gap, the paper presents a procedure to evaluate the optimal usage of these resources from a system operator perspective. A Mixed Integer Linear Problem is set to minimise the overall cost of the system using the participant demand resources in the tertiary reserve market, while ensuring that all technical and regulatory constraints are fulfilled in the evaluation. The proposed method describes a series of metrics to compare the optimal performance with the current scenario, and we draw a set of conclusions and policy recommendations from it. We apply the method to the Spanish Interruptible Load program. Our results show that during the five and a half years of the program, demand resources could have provided savings to the system of up to 23% of the cost of tertiary reserve.

Automated summary

This paper examines the deployment of demand response in reserve markets, focusing on the optimal usage of Interruptible Load programs and their impact on system costs. A method is proposed to evaluate these resources from a system operator perspective, with conclusions drawn from comparisons between optimal and current performance. The study shows potential savings of up to 23% in the Spanish Interruptible Load program over five and a half years.