Potential of demand side integration to maximize use of renewable energy sources in Germany

The use of Demand Side Integration (DSI) makes it possible to control electricity consumption and, at the same time, allows for different ancillary system (e.g. voltage and frequency control) or market services (e.g. load shifting) to be provided. In light of today’s power system, which is faced with a high penetration of renewable energy (more than 20%), DSI has become even more important. These new power systems make it especially necessary to shift plenty of demand to times of high feed-in from wind and solar power plants in order to avoid wasting green energy. Additionally providing ancillary services using DSI can help balancing the system. This paper is focused on the analysis of load shifting potential in the residential and commercial sectors. Therefore a scenario based procedure was developed and applied. It uses a genetic algorithm to consider the time-dependent behavior of the different loads, which are modeled as load blocks. The investigation was conducted in the scope of a VDE/ETG working group in close cooperation with industrial partners. The results determined a practical shifting potential for the investigated sectors (residential and commercial) in Germany which could reach 8GW in 2030.