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AbstractDemand side management (DSM) is one of the important functions in a smart grid that allows customers to make
informed decisions regarding their energy consumption, and helps
the energy providers reduce the peak load demand and reshape
the load profile. This results in increased sustainability of the
smart grid, as well as reduced overall operational cost and carbon
emission levels. Most of the existing demand side management
strategies used in traditional energy management systems employ
system specific techniques and algorithms. In addition, the existing
strategies handle only a limited number of controllable loads of
limited types. This paper presents a demand side management
strategy based on load shifting technique for demand side management of future smart grids with a large number of devices of
several types. The day-ahead load shifting technique proposed
in this paper is mathematically formulated as a minimization
problem. A heuristic-based Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) that
easily adapts heuristics in the problem was developed for solving
this minimization problem. Simulations were carried out on a
smart grid which contains a variety of loads in three service
areas, one with residential customers, another with commercial
customers, and the third one with industrial customers. The simulation results show that the proposed demand side management
strategy achieves substantial savings, while reducing the peak load
demand of the smart grid.
Index TermsDemand side management, distributed energy
resource, evolutionary algorithm, generation scheduling, load
shifting, smart grid.
I. INTRODUCTION
MART GRID [1], [2] represents a vision of the future
power systems integrating advanced sensing technologies,
control methodologies and communication technologies at
transmission and distribution levels in order to supply electricity in a smart and user friendly way. According to the
U.S. Department of Energys modern grid initiative report, the
main characteristics [2] of a smart grid are consumer friendliness, hack proof self-healing, resistance for attack, ability
to accommodate all types of generation and storage options,
electricity market based efficient operation, high power quality,
and optimal assets. This modern grid is prompted by several
economical, political, environmental, social, and technical
factors.
Demand side management [3], [4] is an important function
in energy management of the future smart grid, which provides
support towards smart grid functionalities in various areas
such as electricity market control and management, infrastructure construction, and management of decentralized energy
Manuscript received July 22, 2011; revised November 08, 2011; accepted
April 11, 2012. Date of publication June 08, 2012; date of current version August 20, 2012. This work was supported by National Research Foundation programme grant, NRF-2007EWT-CERP01-0954 (R-263-000-522-272). Paper no.
TSG-00260-2011.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576 (e-mail: logenthiran@nus.
edu.sg; dipti@nus.edu.sg; u0705831@nus.edu.sg).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TSG.2012.2195686
LOGENTHIRAN et al.: DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT IN SMART GRID USING HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION
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Peak clipping and valley filling focus on reducing the difference between the peak and valley load levels to mitigate the
burden of peak demand, and increase the security of smart grid.
Peak clipping [18], [20] is a direct load control technique to
make reduction of the peak loads, and valley filling constructs
the off-peak demand by applying direct load control.
Load shifting [20] is widely applied as the most effective
load management technique in current distribution networks.
Load shifting takes advantage of time independence of loads,
and shifts loads from peak time to off-peak time. Strategic conservation [18] aims to achieve load shape optimization through
application of demand reduction methods directly at customer
premises. The distribution management system has to consider
this for longer term implications of demand reduction on network planning and operation.
Strategic load growth [18][20] optimizes the daily response
in case of large demand introduction beyond the valley filling
technique. It is based on increasing the market share of loads
supported by energy conversion and storage systems or distributed energy resources. It is a planning and operations issue to
balance the increasing demand with processes for constructing
necessary infrastructure that accompanies load growth. The future smart grid has to provide the necessary infrastructure for
strategic load growth. Flexible load shape [18][20] is mainly
related to reliability of smart grid. Smart grid management systems identify customers with flexible loads which are willing
to be controlled during critical periods in exchange for various
incentives. Studies have to be conducted to identify the anticipated load shape which includes demand side activities forecasted over the planning horizon.
III. PROPOSED DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
This paper presents a generalized day-ahead demand side
management (DSM) strategy for the future smart grid. It uses
load shifting as the primary technique that can be utilized by
the central controller of the smart grid. Objective of the demand
side management could be maximizing the use of renewable energy resources, maximizing the economic benefit, minimizing
the power imported from the main distribution grid, or reducing
the peak load demand. Smart grid manager designs an objective
load curve according to the objective of the demand side management. The proposed optimization algorithm aims to bring the
final load curve as close to the objective load curve as possible
such that the desired objective of the DSM strategy is achieved.
For example, if the objective of the demand side management is
to reduce the utility bill, an objective load curve will be chosen
such that it is inversely propositional to electricity market prices.
Fig. 2 shows the proposed architecture for the day-ahead demand side management strategy. According to the proposed architecture, the demand side management system receives the
objective load curve as an input, and calculates the required load
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Fig. 3.
A. Problem Formulation
The proposed demand side management strategy schedules
the connection moments of each shift-able device in the system
in a way that brings the load consumption curve as close as to
the objective load consumption curve. Proposed load shifting
technique is mathematically formulated as follows.
Minimize
(1)
where
, and
The
(2)
is the forecasted consumption at time , and
and
are the amount of loads connected and disconnected at time respectively during the load
shifting.
is made up of two parts: the increment in the
load at time due to the connection times of devices shifted to
time , and the increment in the load at time due to the device
connections scheduled for times that precede . The
is given by the following equation:
where
Fig. 4.
(4)
(3)
is the number of devices of type that are shifted
where
and
from time step to , is the number of device types,
are the power consumptions at time steps 1 and
LOGENTHIRAN et al.: DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT IN SMART GRID USING HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION
where
is the number of devices of type
for control at time step .
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(6)
available
(9)
B. Proposed Algorithm
Demand side management algorithm for future smart grid
needs to be designed to process a large number of controllable
devices of several types. Furthermore, each type of controllable
load can have different consumption characteristics which
spread over few hours, and have several heuristics. Therefore, the designed algorithm should be able to handle these
complexities. Linear programming and dynamic programming are commonly used in this field. However, both linear
programming and dynamic programming algorithms cannot
adequately handle these complexities. Evolutionary computation algorithms have shown potential for solving such complex
problems in other areas [17]. These algorithms have several
advantages over the traditional mathematical algorithms, in
addition to providing near optimal results. Hence, in this paper,
a heuristic based evolutionary algorithm is proposed, and has
been developed to solve the problem [15], [17]. The proposed
algorithm not only adapts the heuristics in the problem easily
but also provides an efficient and cost effective solution to the
problem.
One of the main advantages of the proposed algorithm is the
flexibility in constructing and developing the algorithm which
cannot be afforded by any other conventional approaches. The
flexible nature of evolutionary algorithm allows implementation of features that model load demand patterns based on the
lifestyles of the customers so that the inconvenience to the customers can be minimized. For example, consider two controllable loads: coffee maker and washing machine. They begin
their consumptions in the morning. Coffee maker typically operates during the morning due to customers lifestyle. Hence,
the algorithm can take this into consideration, and try to shift
coffee maker as early as possible in the morning. Washing machine has no such preference so that it can be shifted to a later
time of the day.
Certain loads may have higher priority over other loads,
which can also be taken into consideration by the algorithm
so that these loads are shifted to the appropriate time steps
according to their importance. These types of loads can be seen
in the test cases considered in this paper, where the controllable
devices have characteristics such that connection times of the
devices can only be delayed, and not brought forward. Another
main advantage of the proposed algorithm is the ability to
handle large number of controllable devices of several types.
The size of the problem affects only the length of the chromosomes of evolutionary algorithm.
The demand side management problem has characteristics
such as, connection times of devices that can only be delayed
and not brought forward, which can be expressed as
(7)
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TABLE I
FORECASTED LOAD DEMANDS AND WHOLESALE ENERGY PRICES
TABLE II
DATA OF CONTROLLABLE DEVICES IN THE RESIDENTIAL AREA
A. Residential Area
The devices subjected to control in the residential area have
small power consumption ratings and short durations of operation. Table II shows device types that are subjected to load control and their consumption patterns. There are over 2600 controllable devices available in this area from 14 different types
of devices.
B. Commercial Area
The devices subjected to load control in the commercial area
have consumption ratings which are slightly higher than those in
the residential area. The consumption patterns of the loads under
the control are given in Table III. There are over 800 controllable
LOGENTHIRAN et al.: DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT IN SMART GRID USING HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION
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TABLE III
DATA OF CONTROLLABLE DEVICES IN THE COMMERCIAL AREA
TABLE IV
DATA OF CONTROLLABLE DEVICES IN THE INDUSTRIAL AREA
The results obtained for the industrial area are given in Fig. 9.
The utility bill of the industrial area without demand side management strategy is $5712.00 for the day; whereas it is $5141.60
with demand side management strategy, resulting in 10% reduction in the operating cost.
Table V summarizes the simulation results from the proposed
demand side management strategy for these three areas of the
smart grid. The approach has successfully managed to achieve
the objective in all three areas, with considerable savings in the
utility bills.
Typically, demand side management results are better when
the number of devices available for control increases [3][15].
However, this may not be true in this case study because complexities of the devices under control pose restrictions. In this
case study, even though the number of devices available for
control is the least in the industrial area, the percentage reduction in the operating cost is the highest among all areas. On the
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TABLE V
OPERATIONAL COST REDUCTION
TABLE VI
PEAK DEMAND REDUCTION
other hand, the residential area has the highest number of devices available for control in terms of quantity and variety, but
the percentage reduction in the operating cost is not much as
expected. This can be attributed to the fact that high power consumption of devices in the industrial area compared to much
lower consumption of devices in the residential area. Additionally, even small load shifting of high power devices results in
huge savings for the customers.
In a smart grid, it is expected that utilities will bundle up
services and provide several contract options for customers.
The amount of reimbursement taken by customers through such
schemes will depend on how much inconvenience the customer
is willing to undergo. In case of customers in residential area,
level of tolerance is high for most of the devices. This means
that generally the customers do not have strong preference
regarding the time when the loads have to be consumed. On the
other hand, customers in commercial and industrial areas are
less willing to change their consumption patterns.
Effective demand side management provides benefits not
only to the end users but also to the utilities. One of the main
advantages is the reduction in peak load demands. Table VI
shows the peak load demands with and without the proposed
demand side management strategy for the three areas. It can be
observed that the proposed demand side management strategy
reduces the peak load demand for each area.
Reduction in the peak load demand improves grid sustainability by reducing the overall cost and carbon emission levels.
Furthermore, this will lead to the avoidance of the construction
of an under-utilized electrical infrastructure in terms of generation capacity, transmission lines and distribution networks.
Generation companies also stand to benefit from demand side
management, as the reduction in peak load demand results in
substantial cost savings since costly generators that are typically
turned on to provide power during the peak load demand are
no longer needed. When system peak load demand reduces, the
operating cost of generators will therefore be reduced substantially. This would also result in increasing reserve generation
capacity of the system.
In order to determine the cost saving for generation companies, the entire smart grid comprising of three areas is scheduled
for the day with and without proposed demand side management
strategy. Problem formulation and methodology of the generation scheduling are described in [21], [22].
Figs. 1012 show the generation scheduling of residential,
commercial, and industrial areas without proposed demand side
management strategy respectively. Fig. 13 shows power exchange among the areas. In this case, the industrial area spends
$695.51 with 346.34 kWh of load curtailment, and the commercial area spends $551.33, whereas the residential area saves
$225.48 for the scheduling day. As a whole, the smart grid
spends only $53.70 with 346.34 kWh of load curtailment during
the scheduling day.
Figs. 1416 show the generation scheduling of residential,
commercial, and industrial areas with proposed demand side
management strategy respectively.
Fig. 17 shows power exchange among the areas. In this case,
the industrial area spends $252.15, and the commercial area
spends $157.52, whereas the residential area saves $345.82 for
the scheduling day. As a whole, the smart grid saves $103.70
without any unsatisfied demand during the scheduling day.
Table VII shows the cost saving of each area from generation companies point of view, and unsatisfied load demand of
LOGENTHIRAN et al.: DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT IN SMART GRID USING HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION
1251
each area. The simulation results show that demand side management is indeed beneficial to both consumers and the utility
companies. In the test case, customers achieve 5% to 10% cost
savings, and generation companies archive a substantial saving
with optimized generation scheduling. In addition, transmission
companies achieve between 15% to 20% reduction in the network congestion. The above test cases are only isolated examples. The actual cost savings and peak reduction will be much
higher when the proposed strategy is used for a large smart grid.
The above test cases are just examples to show how the proposed demand side management strategy could be applied for
smart grid operation.
The proposed demanded side management strategy is a generalized technique based on a day-ahead load shifting, and can
be applied for large smart grids of the future. The inputs to the
problem are: control period (i.e., number of time steps), discrete
model of devices load consumption pattern, power consumption at each time step and various uncertainties. The proposed
evolutionary algorithm converges well, and it takes about 6 h
for the test case comprising three areas. The convergence characteristic for the case study is shown in Fig. 18. Although the
computation time appears large, it is acceptable as it solves a
day-ahead demand side management strategy which is to be carried out 24 h before the time of operation.
Even though the proposed strategy provides good results, further work is needed for real time implementation. A real-time
demand side management strategy, together with this proposed
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