Smart grid is considered as a promising solution in improving the power reliability and sustainability where demand response is one important ingredient. Demand response (DR) is a set of demand-side activities to reduce or shift electricity use to improve the electric grid efficiency and reliability. This paper presents the investigations on the power demand alternation potential for buildings involving both active and passive cold storages to support the demand response of buildings connected to smart grids. A control strategy is developed to provide immediate and stepped power demand reduction through shutting chiller(s) down when requested. The primary control objective of the developed control strategy is to restrain the building indoor temperature rise as to maintain indoor thermal comfort within certain level during the DR event. The chiller power reduction is also controlled under certain power reduction set-point. The results show that stepped and significant power reduction can be achieved through shutting chiller(s) down when requested. The power demand reduction and indoor temperature during the DR event can be also predicted accurately. The power demand reduction is stable which is predictable for the system operators. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.