Low-Carbon Demand Response Technology Based on Composite Carbon Emission Factors

This paper proposes a composite carbon emission factor (CCEF) demand response framework to address the limitations of single-factor carbon accounting and achieve economic–environmental synergy. The CCEF mechanism integrates the dynamic carbon emission factor (DCEF) and marginal carbon emission factor (MCEF) through an adaptive weight allocation based on the real-time generation mix. To ensure practical scheduling, the load shifting process is embedded in a co-optimization model that minimizes system generation costs under demand-side physical constraints and network security limits. This mechanism guides spatiotemporal load shifting from thermal-dominated evening peaks to high-renewable midday periods based on carbon potential gradients. Simulations on a modified IEEE 39-bus system show that the CCEF framework achieves a unit emission reduction efficiency of 0.5024 tCO2/MW and a total reduction of 462.03 tCO2. These results outperform individual DCEF and MCEF strategies, demonstrating feasible scheduling and an effective balance between carbon reduction and operational costs.