Industrial energy consumers are concerned about the absence of any proposal on a demand response system in public consultation being staged by the European Commission on Greece’s electricity market reform plan.

Industrial energy consumers are expected to express their concerns through the procedure.

The only related reference concerns a Manual Frequency Restoration Reserve (MFRR), expected to be launched on a trial run as of February before being adopted a year and a half later.

The industrial sector will be called upon to compete with other reserves, which will make demand response participation an issue, industrial sources fear.

They described the MFRR as extremely insufficient and unable to replace the demand response mechanism, which has compensated major-scale electricity consumers when the TSO asks them to shift their energy usage (lower or stop consumption) during high-demand peak hours, so as to balance the electricity system’s needs.

Given the proposals presented in the public consultation procedure, the demand response system appears headed for a marginal role, the industrial sources noted.