The two firms are jointly launching a behavioural demand response program for the former’s residential customers to decrease peak demand and network capital costs. This pilot project strives to empower customers, by assisting them to understand their consumption patterns and estimate the effectiveness of demand response (DR) programs.

Demand Response (DR) programs strive to shift energy consumption from peak hours of the day to leaner demand periods by providing environmental and economic incentives to the consumers for their cooperation.

Participating customers can control their consumption, and freely decide to turn down non-essential loads to lessen total load at peak times. In this method, they will also be able to optimise their monthly electricity bills.

To estimate the acceptability of this program and enhance customer participation, Tata Power will also offer attractive incentives to customers based on their participation level in the pilot program. The pilot results will then be shared with the state regulator (DERC) to determine suitable incentives which can be applicable for all customers.

Ganesh Srinivasan, CEO, Tata Power-DDL, told the media that with the help of this pilot program, the firm aims to provide more control in the hands of the consumers. This initiative will help their goal to create a resource-efficient, greener electrical grid through smart tech integration.

The program will be launched for a duration of 3 months, from 1 July to 30 September, in the first phase with 4,000 residential consumers with smart meter connections. Interested consumers would be notified a day in advance through email, SMS and calls.

Depending on the recognition and success of the pilot, the program would be extended as well, in a phased manner to the following sections -- automated demand response leveraging residential air conditioning systems and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system at commercial and industrial areas, Integration of energy storage, solar PV, electrical vehicles, other DERs for grid balancing and stabilisation, microgrids and site optimisation for Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) applications, commercial and industrial site optimisation for EaaS.