May 12, 2015 – According to a new report from Navigant Research, global demand response (DR) spending is expected to grow from $183.8 million annually in 2015 to more than $1.3 billion in 2024.

A number of forces are driving increased adoption of DR, not only in North America but also around the world, the report discovered. The “changing resource mix in electric grids is creating more potential for DR to play a pivotal role in managing the grid and conserving overall energy use,” Navigant stated.

“The most important development in the DR market is the spread of automated demand response (ADR), which automates the DR dispatch process, from the grid operator to the DR aggregator (if involved) to the end-use customer—all without any manual intervention,” says Brett Feldman, senior research analyst with Navigant. “Advances in metering, communications, and controls technologies are making ADR a viable alternative in both the commercial and industrial and the residential sectors.”  

The report, titled Demand Response Enabling Technologies, also examined DR adoption trends by country and provided profiles of key residential, commercial and industrial DR providers.