Incentive based emergency demand response effectively reduces peak load during heatwave without harm to vulnerable groups.

The incentive-based emergency demand response measure serves as an important regulatory tool during energy system operations. However, whether people will sacrifice comfort to respond to it during heatwave and what the effect on heat vulnerable populations will be are still unclear. A large-scale emergency demand response pilot involving 205,129 households was conducted in southwestern China during continuous extreme high temperatures in summer. We found that the incentive-based emergency demand response causes a statistically significant decline in electricity use with no additional financial burden on vulnerable groups. The electricity conservation potential of urban households was higher than that of rural households. Households with children did not respond to the emergency demand response, while the response of households with elderly individuals proved to be more positive. The repeated and frequent implementation of this policy did not result in an attenuation of the regulatory effect. This research can serve as a reference for countries with similar regulated power markets.