Table 2 Assessment criteria derived from literature (underlined objective number = default)

Peak-to-Average-Ratio (PAR): Highest peak from the average (positive or negative) over the day.

[kWh]

(Soliman and Leon-Garcia 2014; Song et al. 2014; Fathi and Gholami 2012; Verschae et al. 2014)

Ob2, Ob4, Ob5

Mean-Squared-Error (MSE): The arithmetic middle of the squared error during the day; often also indicted as Root-Mean-Squared-Error (RMSE).

[kWh²]

(Verschae et al. 2014; Javed et al. 2012)

Ob3, Ob4, Ob5

Normalized MSE (NMSE): The normalized MSE regarding the status quo (no DR); often used to quantify consumption-flattening.

[kWh]

(Verschae et al. 2014)

Ob3, Ob4, Ob5

Costs: How much has to be paid? Cost function or pricing scheme needed.

[€],[$]

(Atabay et al. 2013; Ali et al. 2012; Alam et al. 2013)

Ob1

Savings: How much savings can be realized compared to no DR in either percentage or money?

[%] or [€]

(Maqbool et al. 2012; Bassamzadeh et al. 2014)

Ob1

Infrastructure use: How good is the infrastructure used? That is, how much of the generated energy is used to reduce external kWh?

[kWh]

(Mohamed et al. 2012; Beaude et al. 2012; Bashash and Fathy 2013; Keerthisinghe et al. 2014)

Ob7

Utility: Is the user’s utility increased by using DR? No unit or standardization was found here.

[/]

(Behrens et al. 2016; Alam et al. 2013; Yang et al. 2012)

Ob6