Slow reactions: the long road to smart demand response

Big data and analytics play an increasingly important role in balancing supply and demand as electricity grids around the world become more decentralized. Market participants are using these tools to improve forecasting and valuing capabilities, but challenges remain.

The rise of prosumers – entities that both produce and consume power – has led to a rapid increase in the number of generation sources available on electricity grids throughout many of the world’s power markets. Utilities and system operators must manage the proliferation of these distributed energy resources (DERs), which generally comprise producing resources and controllable loads that are directly connected to a local distribution system. This can include solar and wind resources, combined