International Energy Agency

Key findings

Over the coming decade, demand flexibility could become a core tool for efficient power systems:

With accelerating electrification, digitalisation and uptake of AI, flexibility could evolve from an infrequently used reliability tool to a routine operational capability that supports day-to-day system optimisation.

Demand flexibility could help manage electrification growth and get more out of existing infrastructure. In Thailand by 2030, mainly industrial flexibility could lower national peak demand by up to 13%. This could help manage rising demand for cooling, with every one-degree increase in temperature today adding around 1 GW to peak demand. Flexibility could play a crucial role in managing this by freeing up to 15% of transmission capacity on many network corridors, but increasing flows on some network lines underscores the need for stakeholder co-ordination of flexibility activation.

Other benefits include supporting greater uptake of renewable energy and reducing costs from fossil fuel generation. In Ireland, by 2035, the ambitious roll-out of flexibility technologies could reduce total energy system costs by up to 10%, lower fossil fuel dispatch, reduce renewable curtailment and strengthen energy security by mitigating exposure to volatile fuel prices. Demand response ready heat pumps could electrify the heating of around 170 000 additional homes without immediate transmission network reinforcement – the equivalent of nearly half of Ireland’s current residential retrofit target.”

Source : https://www.iea.org/reports/scaling-up-demand-flexibility/executive-summary (2026)

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