Fossil energy shortage and the goals of energy-saving and emission reduction are making it imperative to make adjustment in energy development strategies. With the large-scale connection to new energy generation

traditional power grids are evolving into alternate electrical power systems to

challenge their operational control. As a category of virtual controllable resource

introducing demand-side response (DR) can effectively overcome the problem of intermittency of new energy generation

while improving the utilization efficiency in the grids. Therefore

it is an important issue worth further discussion. This paper firstly introduces the basic features and implication of alternate electrical power systems with renewable energy sources. Then the potential contribution and effects of different demand side resources in such systems are treated according to their inherent characteristics. The enabling technologies of DR and the information about their application across the world are also summarized. On this basis

the status quo concerning DR studies in alternate electrical power systems is analyzed from five facets: planning

operation

control

evaluation

and market mechanism. Subsequently

we analyze the nodus that existed and point out the research directions worth further exploration in the above fields. Finally

based on the actual conditions of China

some suggestions are put forward for commercial application of DR and its safeguard mechanism in the context of the new energy era. This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China （No.71271082） and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities （No. 2015QN01）.