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Electricity demand response (DR) improves the overall energy management efficiency and allows for the integration of large-scale renewable energy into the power grid through interactive management and control of the supply and demand sides. However, in China and other emerging countries (e.g., Japan and Australia) with DR programs, the DR market mechanism is not well-established. This is particularly the situation in countries where the state power system is not freely open to participate in the DR market. Previous research has proven that considerable DR resources are largely existing in the demand side; however, the dearth of a market mechanism hinders the development of DR. Hence, a feasible market mechanism is urgently required. In this study, first, the experiences in existing DR-developed markets where DR has been legally regarded as an equivalent electricity resource are investigated. Second, a pilot DR program in Shanghai representing emerging DR markets with a non-liberated electricity background is presented. Moreover, two market mechanisms are analyzed: the energy efficiency obligation mode and the electricity capacity trading mode. Finally, five feasible DR mechanisms—mandatory energy-saving, cap and trade, DR-tiered electricity tariff, price-based program, and economic and emergency DR—are proposed for China and other DR emerging countries.

Electric demand flexibility in buildings has been deemed to be a promising demand response resource, particularly for large commercial buildings, and it can provide grid-responsive support. A building with a higher electricity flexibility potential has a higher degree of involvement with the grid response. If the electricity flexibility potential of a building is known, building operators can properly alleviate peak loads and maximize economic benefits through precise control in demand response programs. Previously, there was no standard way to quantify electricity flexibility, and it was difficult to evaluate a given building without experiments and tests. Thus, a systematic approach is proposed to quantify building electricity flexibility. The flexibility contributions include building thermal mass; lights; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and occupant behaviors. This proposed model has been validated by the instantiation of an office building case on the Dymola platform. For a typical office building, the results show that the electricity flexibility resource not only comes from the HVAC system, but also thermal mass and occupant behavior to a large degree, and buildings with energy flexibility can cut down much of their load during peak load time without compromising on the occupant's comfort.