Abstract: The potential assessment of demand response（DR） resources refers to a quantitative estimation of the DR potential for a specific object in a certain period participating in a DR project with an appointed control mode. As a key fundamental issue in DR research, the DR potential assessment plays an important role in many respects, such as the aggregation of flexible resources, the decision-making of market trading and the optimal operation of virtual power plants. Firstly, the research progress of the DR potential assessment is expounded from the aspects of DR potential types, time dimension and spatial dimension of assessment, and thought framework. Meanwhile, the application scenarios of different dimensions of DR potential assessment are analyzed. Secondly, the actual projects of DR potential assessment are summarized, the typical projects are used as examples to highlight the analysis, and the demonstration projects of DR potential assessment at home and abroad are compared and analyzed to estimate the future development direction of the projects in China. Thirdly, the three new types of DR, i.e. the integrated DR, low-carbon DR, and dynamic DR, are introduced, and the application extension of DR potential assessment for new power system is extended on this basis. Finally, the future development directions of DR potential assessment are prospected.