  Demand response in the context of electrical power networks is a mature
field, but the study of its counterpart for natural gas networks is still in
its infancy. This work is timely given the realities of climate change;
according to some models, climate change will increase the number of severe
winter weather events that will create stress on the natural gas pipeline
networks, impeding the ability of these systems to provide equitable services
to all its customers. The lack of resiliency in natural gas pipeline systems
results in inconvenience, disruption and even loss of lives. This article
addresses the important problem of demand response for residential natural gas
consumers, namely, the reduction of nominal and peak gas demand during normal
winter weather as well as severe winter weather events such as those induced by
polar vortices. We systematically develop a mathematical model for demand
response of thermal heating systems at a household level. The developed models
are leveraged as physical constraints in formulating optimal control problems
that optimize the gas consumption of a collection of houses, with goals being
twofold -- reduction of peak gas demand along with equitable service. On our
test problems, we demonstrate significant benefits, including the ability to
cut peak demand by 15% while still ensuring equitable service to customers. We
discuss the limitations of current technology and the advancements that are
needed to implement such demand response programs in practice. Furthermore, we
also enumerate the research challenges and open problems that need to be solved
to make such demand response programs viable for natural gas systems in the
near future.
