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• Bringing the asset management of transformer under the purview of building manager from utility. • Derived mathematical model of demand response from transformer thermal model. • Method to estimate transformer temperature time constant from measurements and algorithm for improving the life of transformer by regulating HVAC and AHUs. • Smart grid architecture for demand responsive HVAC. • Real time simulation of impact of demand response using the actual building consumption data from an academic campus. Overloading and ageing effects contribute to 12-15% of distribution transformer failures in India. This research is motivated in extending life of transformer by using demand response as an operational strategy where the demand response events are issued by predicting overheating of transformer before it occurs. In this paper heating ventilation and air conditioning is considered as a flexible load for responding to demand response events. A demo site is created at 11 KV/440 V substation with 1.6 MVA transformer at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) campus and the proposed architecture and algorithm is implemented. This substation supplies power to chiller plant and three academic buildings with heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Analysis for improving the transformer lifetime is carried out for 5 consecutive days during the period (25–29)th Feb 2020 using real time field data. It is observed that during this period 11 demand response events occurred with a total demand response of 919 kWH. From the obtained results it is observed that there is a saving of 15 hoursof transformer life within a period of 5 days (120 hours) of transformer operation. The key contribution in this paper is to bring together three concepts transformer lifetime estimation, HVAC flexibility and demand response for improving the transformer lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]