Introduction     With the development of metering and communication technology， the basic hardware conditions for implementing demand response have been met， and the implementation of demand response projects has been put on the agenda. The selection of pilot regions for demand response implementation requires an assessment of the region's demand response potential.

    Method   In order to solve the problem which the price elasticity coefficient was only used in the demand response potential evaluation of general load at this stage， and the accurate data of price elasticity coefficient was difficult to obtain， this paper innovatively designed a demand response potential evaluation method based on two-stage clustering analysis. This method fully considered the user's suitability and the characteristics of the user process/equipment， which mainly affect the demand response potential.

    Result   A case study of 386 users in a city in Guangdong has been carried out， and the average demand response potential for the 250 hours with a higher load in the city is 3.2% of the city's highest load.

    Conclusion   Compared with the current demand response of the various electricity markets in the United States， it is found that the results of this evaluation method are reasonable and have certain practical value.