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1. Baseline Estimation and Scheduling for Demand Response

   https://doi.org/10.1109/CDC.2018.8619236  

   Muthirayan, Deepan ; Kalathil, Dileep ; Poolla, Kameshwar ; Varaiya, Pravin ( December 2018 , 2018 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC))

   null (Ed.)

   Demand Response (DR) programs serve to reduce the demand for electricity at times when the supply is scarce and expensive. Consumers or agents with flexible consumption profiles are recruited by an aggregator who manages the DR program. These agents are paid for reducing their energy consumption from contractually established baselines. Baselines are counter-factual consumption estimates against which load reductions are measured. Baseline consumption and the true cost of load reduction are consumer specific parameters and are unknown to the aggregator. The key components of any DR program are: (a) establishing a baseline against which demand reduction is measured, (b) designing the payment scheme for agents who reduce their consumption from this baseline, and (c) the selection scheme. We propose a self-reported baseline mechanism (SRBM) for the DR program. We show that truthful reporting of baseline and marginal utility is both incentive compatible and individually rational for every consumer under SRBM. We also give a a pod-sorting algorithm based DR scheduling for selecting consumers that is nearly optimal in terms of expected cost of DR provision. 

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2. Simultaneous Demand Response Program and Conservation Voltage Reduction for Optimal Operation of Distribution Systems

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ias44978.2020.9334720  

   Khalili, Tohid ; Jafari, Amirreza ; Kalajahi, Seyed Mohammad ; Mohammadi-Ivatloo, Behnam ; Bidram, Ali ( October 2020 , 2020 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting)

   null (Ed.)

   Due to the dependency of electric loads on the voltage, the load consumption can be controlled by controlling the voltage level. Optimal voltage regulation can benefit the distribution system by reducing the costs of purchasing electric power in the conservation voltage reduction (CVR) mode and increasing the sold energy income in the optimal voltage increase mode. Moreover, implementing demand response programs (DRP) is an effective way to decrease the costs and increase the profit of utilities and customers. This paper investigates the impact of incentive-based DRP and CVR on the operation of the distribution system under different objective functions. The cost of electricity consumption, the profit obtained by the electricity market, and system reliability are the three objective functions. Respect to the considered objective functions, eight scenarios are studied, and their results are compared. Finally, the obtained results validate the method and confirm the positive effect of simultaneous DRP and CVR. 

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3. Residential electricity demand on CAISO Flex Alert days: a case study of voluntary emergency demand response programs

   https://doi.org/10.1088/2753-3751/ad0fda  

   Peplinski, McKenna ; Sanders, Kelly T ( December 2023 , Environmental Research: Energy)

   The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) utilizes a system-wide, voluntary demand response (DR) tool, called the Flex Alert program, designed to reduce energy usage during peak hours, particularly on hot summer afternoons when surges in electricity demand threaten to exceed available generation resources. However, the few analyses on the efficacy of CAISO Flex Alerts have produced inconsistent results and do not investigate how participation varies across sectors, regions, population demographics, or time. Evaluating the efficacy of DR tools is difficult as there is no ground truth in terms of what demand would have been in the absence of the DR event. Thus, we first define two metrics that to evaluate how responsive customers were to Flex Alerts, including theFlex Period Response, which estimates how much demand was shifted away from the Flex Alert period, and theRamping Response, which estimates changes in demand during the first hour of the Flex Alert period. We then analyze the hourly load response of the residential sector, based on ∼200 000 unique homes, on 17 Flex Alert days during the period spanning 2015–2020 across the Southern California Edison (SCE) utility’s territory and compare it to total SCE load. We find that the Flex Period Response varied across Flex Alert days for both the residential (−18% to +3%) and total SCE load (−7% to +4%) and is more dependent on but less correlated with temperature for the residential load than total SCE load. We also find that responsiveness varied across subpopulations (e.g. high-income, high-demand customers are more responsive) and census tracts, implying that some households have more load flexibility during Flex Alerts than others. The variability in customer engagement suggests that customer participation in this type of program is not reliable, particularly on extreme heat days, highlighting a shortcoming in unincentivized, voluntary DR programs.

    

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4. Willingness to delay charging of electric vehicles

   Daziano, R.A. ( July 2020 , 25th Annual Conference of the European Association Environmental and Resource Economists)

   null (Ed.)

   Electrification of vehicles is becoming one of the main avenues for decarbonization of the transportation market. To reduce stress on the energy grid, large-scale charging will require optimal scheduling of when electricity is delivered to vehicles. Coordinated electric-vehicle charging can produce optimal, flattened loads that would improve reliability of the power system as well as reduce system costs and emissions. However, a challenge for successful introduction of coordinated deadline-scheduling of residential charging comes from the demand side: customers would need to be willing both to defer charging their vehicles and to accept less than a 100% target for battery charge. Within a coordinated electric-vehicle charging pilot run by the local utility in upstate New York, this study analyzes the necessary incentives for customers to accept giving up control of when charging of their vehicles takes place. Using data from a choice experiment implemented in an online survey of electric-vehicle owners and lessees in upstate New York (N=462), we make inference on the willingness to pay for features of hypothetical coordinated electric-vehicle charging programs. To address unobserved preference heterogeneity, we apply Variational Bayes (VB) inference to a mixed logit model. Stochastic variational inference has recently emerged as a fast and computationally-efficient alternative to Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods for scalable Bayesian estimation of discrete choice models. Our results show that individuals negatively perceive the duration of the timeframe in which the energy provider would be allowed to defer charging, even though both the desired target for battery charge and deadline would be respected. This negative monetary valuation is evidenced by an expected average reduction in the annual fee of joining the charging program of $2.64 per hour of control yielded to the energy provider. Our results also provide evidence of substantial heterogeneity in preferences. For example, the 25% quantile of the posterior distribution of the mean of the willingness to accept an additional hour of control yielded to the utility is $5.16. However, the negative valuation of the timeframe for deferring charging is compensated by positive valuation of emission savings coming from switching charging to periods of the day with a higher proportion of generation from renewable sources. Customers also positively valued discounts in the price of energy delivery. 

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5. Legal Feasibility and Implementation of Federal Strategies for a National Retail‐Based Fruit and Vegetable Subsidy Program in the United States

   https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12461  

   POMERANZ, JENNIFER L. ; HUANG, YUE ; MOZAFFARIAN, DARIUSH ; MICHA, RENATA ( July 2020 , The Milbank Quarterly)

   Suboptimal intake of fruit and vegetables is associated with increased risk of diet‐related diseases. A national retail‐based fruit and vegetable subsidy program could broadly benefit the health of the entire population.

   Existing fruit and vegetable subsidy programs can inform potential implementation mechanisms; Congress's powers to tax, spend, and regulate interstate commerce can be leveraged to create a federal program.

   Legal and administrative feasibility considerations support a conditional funding program or a federal‐state cooperative program combining regulation, licensing, and state or local options for flexible implementation strategies. Strategies to engage key stakeholders would enable the program to utilize lessons learned from existing programs.

   Suboptimal intake of fruit and vegetables (F&Vs) is associated with increased risk of diet‐related diseases. Yet, there are no US government programs to support increased F&V consumption nationally for the whole population, most of whom purchase food at retail establishments. To inform policy discussion and implementation, we identified mechanisms to effectuate a national retail‐based F&V subsidy program.

   We conducted legal and policy research using LexisNexis, the UConn Rudd Center Legislation Database, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chronic Disease State Policy Tracking System, the US Department of Agriculture's website, Congress.gov, gray literature, and government reports. First, we identified existing federal, state, local, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) policies and programs that subsidize F&Vs. Second, we evaluated Congress's power to implement a national retail‐based F&V subsidy program.

   We found five federal programs, three federal bills, four state laws, and 17 state (including the District of Columbia [DC]) bills to appropriate money to supplement federal food assistance programs with F&Vs; 74 programs (six multistate, 22 state [including DC], and 46 local) administered by state and local governments and NGOs that incentivize the purchase of F&Vs for various subpopulations; and two state laws and 11 state bills to provide tax exemptions for F&Vs. To create a national F&V subsidy program, Congress could use its Commerce Clause powers or its powers to tax or spend, through direct regulation, licensing, taxation, tax incentives, and conditional funding. Legal and administrative feasibility considerations support a voluntary conditional funding program or, as a second option, a mandatory federal‐state cooperative program combining regulation and licensing.

   Multiple existing programs provide an important foundation to inform potential implementation mechanisms for a national F&V subsidy program. Results also highlight the value of state and local participation to leverage existing networks and stakeholder knowledge.

    

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