Analytical frameworks to incorporate demand response in long-term resource planning

• We review current approaches to incorporate demand response in resource planning.
• We recommend 10 ways in which the current approaches may be enhanced and expanded.
• The impacts of DR are often not fully represented in planning processes.
• There are barriers to enhancing current approaches that must be addressed.

Many utilities are obligated by state regulatory or legislative requirements to consider demand response (DR) as part of their resource planning process. There are several ways to incorporate DR into resource planning modeling and each has its advantages and disadvantages. We explore the current analytical frameworks for incorporating DR into long-term resource planning. We also consider whether current approaches accurately and realistically model DR resources in capacity expansion and production cost models and whether barriers exist to incorporating DR into resource planning models in a more robust fashion. We identify 10 specific recommendations for enhancing and expanding the current approaches.