A model for the estimation of the economic potential of a demand response system for the electric load management

The electric energy price variability on hourly scale can open remarkable occasions of profit (on the market side) or savings (on the consumer side) on condition that the market is able to timely communicate variation and consumers are willing to modify normal consumptions patterns making flexible the demand. The lack of exposition to adequate economic incentives, the unavailability of technologies enabling the response and the limited propensity to an elastic behaviour of consumptions are the main reasons of the under-exploited field of business actions. The paper presents the first outcomes of a research project carried out in collaboration with a company operating as retailer on the electric energy market with the aim to model and implement an integrated ICT system able to apply shut down and/or shifting of electric loads to small and medium users with flexible price ratings in order to obtain shared economic advantages, with a particular focus on the tertiary sector, being the least explored in literature and applications.