Unlike prior work on demand management, which typically requires industrial loads to be turned off during peak times, this paper studies the potential to carry out demand response by modifying the elastic load components of common household appliances. Such a component can decrease its instantaneous power draw at the expense of increasing its duration of operation with no impact on the appliance's lifetime. We identify the elastic components of ten common household appliances. Assuming separate

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... control of an appliance's elastic component, we quantify the relationship between the potential reduction in aggregate peak and the duration required to complete the operation of appliances in four geographic regions: Ontario, Quebec, France and India. We find that even with a small extension to the operation duration of appliances, peak demand can be significantly reduced in all four regions both during winter and summer. For example, during winter in Quebec, a nearly 125 MW reduction in peak demand can be obtained with just a 10% increase in appliance operation duration. We conclude that exploiting appliance elasticity to reduce peak power demand should be an important consideration for appliance manufacturers. From a policy perspective, our study gives regulators the ability to quantitatively assess the impact of requiring manufacturers to conform to "smart appliance" standards.