Evaluating the Effectiveness of Brazil’s Demand Response Program: Operational and Economic Insights

Demand-side management is essential for managing and influencing consumer energy usage patterns. It reduces power consumption during peak hours and minimizes its environmental impact by reducing the need to use dispatchable thermal power plants. In 2022, Brazil launched the Demand Response (DR) program, developed by the National Agency of Electrical Energy (ANEEL) and the National System Operator (ONS), enabling pre-qualified consumers to reduce voluntarily their power consumption in exchange for financial compensation. This paper investigates daily DR reports, written by ONS, which detail the accepted offers and the energy data of all consumers from the free market. This investigation is carried out through Python-based routines that filter the daily operation scheduling files and compile the offers data into a suitable format for analysis. Additionally, other routines cross-reference the compiled DR information with monthly consumption data published by CCEE, filtering the agents that submitted offers in two distinct ways. First, the standard load behavior is constructed based on the average consumption of the days in the month, and second, the observed load pattern when the offer was executed is determined. With this processing, a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of the offers is performed. Finally, it evaluates the economic implications for operators and participants by contrasting the Marginal Energy Price (PLD) with the accepted offer prices. This comprehensive analysis highlights the operational and financial outcomes of the DR program, offering insights into its effectiveness and potential for broader adoption.