Customer Experience, Better Modeling Can Boost Demand-Side Portfolio: Report

Why It Matters

The approach shows utilities can meet rising load and renewable integration challenges while avoiding costly new generation, delivering significant cost savings for ratepayers.

Key Takeaways

• Demand stack could add 90 MW of capacity by 2030
• Enrollment-focused tactics deliver up to 53 MW incremental response
• Six strategies boost demand‑side capability by 66 MW
• Combined tactics raise demand‑side share to 5% of load
• Potential $170 billion savings over 10 years for utilities

Pulse Analysis

Utilities are confronting a perfect storm of load growth, variable renewable output, and accelerating electrification of transport and heating. Traditional supply‑side solutions—new plants and transmission upgrades—are capital‑intensive and often face lengthy permitting. Brattle’s "demand stack" model reframes demand‑side resources as core grid infrastructure, showing how coordinated programs can provide near‑term capacity without new generation. By aggregating demand response, energy efficiency and time‑of‑use pricing, a representative Southwest Power Pool utility could unlock 90 MW of capacity, a modest but strategically valuable contribution to system reliability.

The report identifies six high‑impact strategies, four of which target customers directly: point‑of‑sale enrollment that auto‑enrolls users when they buy eligible equipment, enhanced event communication, personalized home‑energy reports, and referral incentives. Together these tactics generate 66 MW of additional demand‑side capability, while improved forecasting and staggered asset dispatch add another 23 MW. Enrollment‑focused initiatives alone could deliver up to 53 MW, illustrating the power of frictionless sign‑ups and multi‑channel engagement. By treating these programs as a portfolio rather than isolated pilots, utilities can set system‑level performance targets and capture interactive effects as technology adoption rises.

Beyond the Southwest Power Pool, the demand‑stack framework is broadly applicable to regions grappling with rapid load growth or high renewable penetration. The potential $170 billion in customer savings over a decade—derived from a 10% increase in grid utilization—highlights the economic upside of scaling demand‑side solutions. However, utilities must navigate regulatory nuances, such as compensation rules for behind‑the‑meter batteries, to fully realize these benefits. As utilities shift toward portfolio‑level management, the demand stack offers a repeatable, customizable pathway to enhance grid resilience, reduce capital expenditures, and keep ratepayers’ bills in check.