Demand side management of industrial electricity consumption: Promoting the use of renewable energy through real-time pricing

As the installed capacity of wind generation in Ireland continues to increase towards an overall goal of 40% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020, it is inevitable that the frequency of wind curtailment occurrences will increase. Using this otherwise discarded energy by strategically increasing demand at times that would otherwise require curtailment has the potential to reduce the installed capacity of wind required to meet the national 2020 target. Considering two industrial electricity consumers, this study analyses the potential for the implementation of price based demand response by an industrial consumer to increase their proportional use of wind generated electricity by shifting their demand towards times of low prices. Results indicate that while curtailing during peak price times has little or no benefit in terms of wind energy consumption, demand shifting towards low price times is likely to increase a consumer's consumption of wind generation by approximately 5.8% for every 10% saved on the consumer's average unit price of electricity. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.