Residential Energy Management Using Hierarchical Delay in Home Appliance

Abstract

Consumer behavior is the key factor in Demand Response (DR) programs in the residential side; So, modelling of residential energy consumption based on consumer habits for home applications is essential. These models provide infrastructure for energy management and facilitate applying several DR programs into residential side. This paper aims at finding optimal delay time in the most energy consumption equipment based on the priority of each appliance. The program reduces the peak of consumption and fills the valley in household appliances. It is applied into a conventional three level Time of Use (TOU) program. In order to achieve this target, first domestic appliances consumption models are identified and classified in three major groups based on acceptable delay time; then, equation for each appliance is estimated. An objective function is defined as minimizing the square error of demand and load curve. After that, all models are inserted into a general equation and solved with genetic algorithm. During the optimization process, several factors such as consumer satisfaction, addressing minimum demand of energy in each scenario, and average use of appliances are considered. Finally, delay time for each appliance is obtained and applied to conventional three level TOU program. In other words, in the critical peak period of consumption, with considering the priority of each load and consumer satisfaction, an obtained delay is inserted in less essential loads hierarchically. This insertion continues until achieving the optimal objective function. Results are compared and demonstrated that using simple programmable delay relay, which can be easily integrated on the path of each appliance, reduces he peak in daily electricity consumption as well as electricity bill for consumers.