Universities’ Implicit Demand Response Participation

Universities are large energy consumers and can potentially benefit from the participation in the implicit demand response. However, universities usually concern the security of the energy budget and might have larger electricity bill if realtime prices are frequently higher than fixed prices. Therefore, this study investigates financial benefits and risks for a selected university to participate in the implicit DR programs with two scenarios: 1) purchasing electricity from the Nord Pool Spot market directly, and 2) participating in the up-regulating market via an aggregator. With the investigation of the yearly hourly-based electricity consumption, the Nord Pool Spot market prices and several interviews, the results show that the financial benefit by purchasing electricity from the Nord Pool Spot market directly instead of a fixed price is not significant if the fixed electricity prices negotiated with the electricity retailers are low. The universities can have significant revenue by participating in the up-regulating market if the flexibility capacity increases dramatically.