Demand response programs are a way to balance electricity supply and demand. The program Entergy is proposing creates financial incentives to encourage customers to voluntarily lower their electricity usage during times of high demand. Think summertime in Louisiana where you and 70,000 of your neighbors are running your A/C unit on 70 degrees.
That intense demand for power puts a major strain on the grid. The strain can be alleviated through programs that incentivize less power use, for example, by paying people to raise their A/C unit a few degrees, or to charge their electric vehicle at night instead of during the day when electricity is in high demand.
Entergy is proposing 3 new demand response programs residents can sign up for, including a smart thermostat program, an electric vehicle charging program, and a battery energy storage program. (Remember this is only for Entergy Louisiana customers. Entergy New Orleans customers have separate programs).
By 2030, Entergy expects to generate 155 MW of electricity through the various programs, which is equivalent to the power generated by a natural gas plant.
Program: Energy Hub, the program provider, will make small temperature adjustments to a customer’s smart thermostat to reduce energy usage during short periods of high demand. Customers must have a central air unit and smart thermostat. The temperature will only be adjusted by a few degrees for around an hour at a time for a maximum of 80 hours a year. You can always manually override these changes, but participating customers must lower their usage at least 70% of the time they are called upon to do so to receive the incentives.
Incentive:
Program: This program incentivizes people to charge their electric vehicle from 9pm to 6am on weekdays and anytime on weekends and holidays. Participating customers must charge their vehicle(s) during these off-peak hours for at least 80% of the month to earn their monthly incentive.
Incentive: Ongoing – $7 per month
Program: The battery energy storage program allows Entergy to use stored energy from residents’ battery systems during times of peak demand. Approximately 80% of the battery’s capacity will be available to Entergy. This is a great opportunity for people who have solar panels already to get a rebate for adding battery storage.
Incentive:
Demand response programs provide opportunities to residents to play a direct and significant role in making our electricity grid stronger. When a large number of residents lower their electricity use at the same time, it reduces the strain on the grid. Then, when another large group of people sends their extra battery power to the grid, that extra electricity helps to bolster the grid.
The goals of demand response programs are to lower electricity costs during peak demand, bolster grid reliability by reducing strain, and reducing or shifting the load in order to avoid building more new costly generation assets like a gas plant.
These types of programs help to improve reliability because they are quickly dispatchable resources that can be called upon in a moment’s notice.
In addition to the residential offerings, Entergy has proposed adding a program for agricultural customers that incentivizes irrigation load control, as well as an offering for commercial and industrial customers to curtail their loads in times of high electricity demand.
Entergy’s demand response proposal is pending LPSC approval, docket U-37595. We expect the Commission to approve the program, which is set to go into effect in summer of 2026.
