Effect of Demand Response Programs on Industrial Specific Energy Consumption: Study at Three Cement Plants

Demand-side management (DSM) is the modification of consumer utilization manner for energy through various methods to smooth their power consumption curve and increase their energy efficiency. Although the DSM improves the electricity grid stability and protects the environment, it allows customers to reduce their costs. The available literature classifies DSM into two different areas: (i) energy efficiency (EE) and (ii) demand response (DR). In other words, cement plants are the largest customers of electricity, so the implementation of DSM programs in these heavy industries is very important for electricity companies. Past studies have often examined the impact of DR programs in cement factories on solving peak problems and changing load profiles but have not studied the effects of DR implementation on the energy efficiency index in the short and long term in these industries. In this paper, while examining the effect of implementing three types of common DR programs in smart grids including demand bidding (DB), ancillary services (A/S), and time of use (TOU) on the load profile of cement plants, based on the mathematical model of the load and the real data of the case study, it is shown that the implementation of the TOU program has created the highest energy efficiency by reducing specific energy consumption (SEC) in cement plants.