Demand Response (DR) is to make users change their electricity consumption mode through price signal or incentive measures in the electricity consumption link, which is of great significance in promoting the power market reform and reducing the power supply pressure of the grid. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of demand response under the new power system, the DR potential evaluation index system is constructed from four aspects of user load, user willingness to participate, intelligent level and economy; Secondly, AHP and CRITIC are used to determine the subjective weight and objective weight of each index, and the combined weight is calculated. Then, an improved matter-element extension model is established to evaluate the DR potential of each user. The established index system and evaluation model are used to evaluate and rank the DR potential of 10 users, which proves the scientificity and effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, the simplified model is used to evaluate the potential of 96 users and compare the potential under different subsidy incentives.The results show that for price sensitive users, the higher the subsidy incentive, the greater the response potential of users.