A survey of industrial applications of Demand Response

•The contribution of ancillary services and their potential in industries.•Investigating different types of high potential industries for DR programs.•Barriers that hinder widespread utilization of industrial DR programs.

Industrial consumers have traditionally provided flexibility for power systems through various Demand Response (DR) programs in different regions of the world, but below their real potential. Utilizing DR in industries will reduce the need for more expensive alternative forms of flexibility like storage or backup plants. In current increasingly flexible electricity market, it is an excellent chance for the industrial sites to carry out the most of energy management with DR, especially for those plants that are already equipped with the required facilities for DR. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive review of applications of DR in the industrial sector. On this basis, this survey firstly presents the contribution of ancillary services and their potential in industries and then introduces different types of industries with higher potential for DR programs. Finally, the main barriers that hinder the widespread utilization of these programs in industries are presented and categorized.