Demand-Side Management for the Smart Grid

Efficient Demand Response or Demand-Side Management (DSM) has long been one of the key aspirations of the Energy Sector. In Smart Grids, there could be many opportunities for semi-automated DSM, assuming proper coordination (i.e. de-synchronization) mechanisms are in place. In this paper, we present the results of a simulation study that was carried out to outline the potential benefits and sketch the key ICT requirements for DSM in Smart Grids. Our preliminary findings indicate that a simple, centralized reactive pricing scheme could be implemented with an acceptable communication overhead, but also suggest high computational needs.