Energy-intensive industrial loads

such as the electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking

boast significant demand response (DR) potential and have been formally recognized as an ancillary service provider. Accurate DR potential assessment forms the foundation for market participation and operational optimization

which is of great significance for enhancing the flexibility of the new power system. Current methods inadequately address production process coupling constraints while relying on single power adjustment modes

resulting in evaluation inaccuracies. This paper proposes a DR potential assessment method based on equipment-level production scheduling simulation. By considering two different regulation methods

load shifting and power curtailment

it fully taps the DR potential of EAF steelmaking. First

a resource-task network is employed to establish an EAF steelmaking production scheduling model that considers the coupling constraints of the production process. Second

with the shortest completion time as the optimization objective

the baseline scheduling scheme is determined. Finally

for price-based DR

the adjustable load boundaries of the steel plant's load are determined with electricity costs as the objectives. For incentive-based DR

the DR potential of the steel mill is evaluated with the objective of maximizing the response during the DR period. A case study carried out in a steel plant in Hebei Province shows that the upward and downward adjustable capacities of EAF steelmaking account for 17.8% and 18.3% of the total load respectively. The total electricity cost can be reduced by 3.01% to 15.59% under time-of-use pricing and by 7.51% to 20.93% under real-time pricing

demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.