The Carbon Emissions Impact of Demand Flexibility

The report analyzes how demand flexibility in buildings can reduce carbon emissions based on different grid decarbonization stages in New York City, finding that potential savings increase as the grid incorporates more variable renewable energy.

• The capacity for demand flexibility to reduce emissions increases as the electrical grid decarbonizes. In New York City's current grid, reductions are limited to 3%, but could reach approximately 10% by 2030 as more variable renewable generation is added, and up to approximately 40% as the grid reaches full decarbonization.
• Demand flexibility provides emissions reductions regardless of the specific type of variable renewable generation resources added to Zone J during its transition to a decarbonized grid.
• The effectiveness of demand flexibility depends on the characteristics of the time-of-use emissions signal, specifically its type, timestep, and advance notice. The greatest emissions reductions are achieved using a marginal emissions signal with the shortest possible timestep and advance notice.

APA

RMI (2021). The Carbon Emissions Impact of Demand Flexibility. https://rmi.org/resources/the-carbon-emissions-impact-of-demand-flexibility/

Chicago

RMI. The Carbon Emissions Impact of Demand Flexibility. 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/the-carbon-emissions-impact-of-demand-flexibility/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=The Carbon Emissions Impact of Demand Flexibility |date=18 February 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/the-carbon-emissions-impact-of-demand-flexibility/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021carbon, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{The Carbon Emissions Impact of Demand Flexibility}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = feb, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/the-carbon-emissions-impact-of-demand-flexibility/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }