Demand Response Potential of Residential Appliances – Clothes Washer (GE)

This project evaluated the demand response (DR) capabilities of a residential front-load clothes washer manufactured by General Electric Company (GE) in a laboratory setting. The intention of this laboratory assessment was to provide SCE a better understanding of how the clothes washer will respond to certain DR signals before its installation at customer sites. Generally, the clothes washer consistently performed in a manner compliant with its originally intended strategy and has the potential to avoid its peak demand of roughly 600W. The DR benefits depend on factors such as price signal, duration and time of event occurrence vs. washer stage of operation. Further simulation and better understanding of the DR programs used to activate these systems are required to fully evaluate the grid-level impacts of various schemes.