Assessing the residential sector decarbonization potential of demand-side management resources: A case study of Georgia and the Atlanta metro area

Abstract

The current energy transition necessitates an integration of demand-side management resources into decarbonization efforts. Recognizing the role that demand-side interventions could play in helping decarbonize Georgia’s residential sector, this study sets out to assess the residential sector decarbonization potential of demand-side management resources via a case study of the metro Atlanta area. A review of American Housing Survey data for the area identified metro Atlanta’s high but inefficient household electrification rates, a pattern that was even more prevalent in low-income households, while a review of Georgia Power’s 2022 Integrated Resource Plan highlighted the missed opportunity for deployment of dispatchable retail demand response programs. Installations of heat pumps and heat pump water heaters in metro Atlanta households with existing electrified space and water heating, but with no installed measures of the mentioned appliances, could abate nearly one megaton of greenhouse gas emissions per year, while implementation of deep energy efficiency retrofits to households with already electrified space and water heating were found to yield significant energy burden reductions for low-income households, e.g., an estimated 5% energy burden reduction for households with a yearly income of $25,000. Additionally, those same households (i.e., ones with electrified space and water heating) were found to cumulatively provide demand savings through DR programs that exceed the capacity of the natural gas combustion turbines with planned power purchase agreements by Georgia Power, while also delivering those services as a lower-cost alternative than the combustion turbine power plants in most of the modeled scenarios.