Analysis of the feasibility of Demand Response on HVAC systems in Brazil: application for the hotel sector

This article deals with the Demand Response (DR) application on refrigeration equipment for the hotel sector, establishing strategies at various levels of aggressiveness, by taking into account the thermal comfort in the facilities. The simulations are based on DRQAT software adapted to the Brazilian scenario. The analysis consists in a comparison of the results obtained with the electricity price in the short-term market, in order to obtain an estimate of profits from DR, besides establishing a relation between the value of DR per period of application and levels of thermal comfort. In this way, the circumstances in which DR becomes viable for the hotel sector are verified. The result of this analysis indicates that, in order to provide opportunities for supplying DR with maximum efficiency of use of the resource, it is necessary to create mechanisms for load aggregation. Thus, the added flexibility becomes significant in both economic and energy terms.