What influences industrial enterprises’ willingness of demand response: A survey in Qinghai, China

Although demand response (DR) is an important means for solving the stability and reliability challenges of renewable energy (RE) power systems, it remains unclear how DR can be widely applied in industrial enterprises, particularly in areas with a high proportional RE system and industrial energy consumption that do not apply any DR programs. The objective of this study is to understand the influencing factors of industrial enterprises' willingness to participate (WTP) in DR in these areas, including one economic factor and three noneconomic factors. This study performs a questionnaire survey in Qinghai, and a total of 556 industrial enterprises completed valid questionnaires, these data are empirically analyzed through Structural Equation Model. The results demonstrate enterprises' DR awareness degree is the most significant predictors of the WTP in DR. Meanwhile, enterprises' electricity consumption level also had a significant impact on the WTP in DR rather than enterprises' potential DR capabilities and the expected minimum compensation. Finally, the study suggests feasible recommendations, such as increasing enterprises' ability of analyzing potential DR, directly encouraging enterprises to participate in DR, designing compensation standards and adopting differentiated DR according to enterprises’ actual DR potential.