Demand response in households

The project demonstrated how electrically heated households can respond to fluctuations in electricity prices. More than 500 households participated in the demonstration project.

Only automatic devices were effective
The experiment showed that informing the participants about the fluctuation of the electricity prices and pointing out the most expensive hours did not itself lead to any significant effect. Only participants with installed automatic devices to control the consumption had a significantly lower total consumption. The participants in the demonstration project saved 100-200 DKK/year by adjusting their consumption according to the electricity prices.

Electricity at spot prices much cheaper
An interesting side effect of the demonstration project was that the households saved between 1,500 and 3,000 DKK/year just by participating in the project. However, they did not obtain these savings  by adjusting their electricity consumption but simply by buying their electricity at spot prices during the experiment instead of the fixed price they normally pay through their default supply company.

The evaluation report contains quantitative analyses of the data collected from the households, the development in the electricity price, temperature variations etc. It also presents qualitative telephone interviews with all participants and more thorough interviews carried out in smaller groups with a selected number of participants.

The project was carried out by the Danish Energy Industries Federation, Danfoss, Siemens, SEAS-NVE, Syd Energi and Ea Energy Analyses and was financed by Energinet.dk and the participating companies.