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The reduction of environmental impacts of electricity use and the transition to renewable power generation crucially depend on demand response (DR). This article takes the political commitment to DR as a starting point and empirically examines Finnish stakeholders' views on barriers to the utilization of DR and the ways in which these barriers could be overcome. The analysis is based on surveys of Finnish electricity retailers and distribution system operators (DSOs), a survey of a wider range of energy specialists, and a follow-up workshop of the latter survey. According to the participants, the main barriers are related to customer engagement and DR automation. Thus, the proposed solutions focused largely on end-user incentives and obligations as well as technical issues. Especially the latter topic would benefit from regulative measures such as standardization of appliance interfaces, whereas changes in electricity tariff structures may take place either through normative changes by the retailers and DSOs or through regulation.

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Salla Annala received her M.Sc. in electrical engineering in 2008. She is currently working as a researcher in the Laboratory of Electricity Markets and Power Systems in Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. Her research interests include functioning of competition and customer behavior in retail electricity markets. Satu Viljainen is a professor of electricity markets at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. Her present research interests include competition and regulation in deregulated electricity markets, and the Russian electricity market development. She gained her M.Sc. in electrical engineering and D.Sc. (Tech.) from Lappeenranta University of Technology in 2001 and 2005, respectively. Jussi Tuunanen received his M.Sc. in electrical engineering in 2009. He is currently working as a researcher in the Laboratory of Electricity Markets and Power Systems in Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. His research interests include efficient use of electricity and electricity pricing in the smart grid environment.