In August and September2020, the ISO relied on demand response to curtail load more frequently and at much higher levels than in nearly two decades. A large portion of demand response resource adequacy capacity was not available for dispatch across peak net load hours.
Demand response resources met about 4 percent of total system resource adequacy capacity requirements in August and September. While demand response currently comprises a relatively small portion of the resource adequacy fleet, discussions are taking place at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the ISO, which will consider steps to increase supply on the system by summer of 2021, including additional capacity from demand response resources.
This report provides further analysis of how demand response resources participated and performed in the ISO market in August and September 2020. This report also discusses demand response compensation and assesses the incentives for demand response resources providing resource adequacy to participate and perform in the ISO market. Finally, this report includes a list of recommendations to be considered for improving the availability and performance of demand response resources used to meet resource adequacy requirements.
Information related to market monitoring is available at http://www.caiso.com/market/Pages/MarketMonitoring/Default.aspx.
