Shaping aggregated load profiles based on optimized local scheduling of home appliances

Abstract

We present a new method to control an aggregated electric load profile by exploiting the flexibilities provided by residential homes. The method is based on a common energy price combined with inclining block rates, broadcasted to all households allowing them to minimize their energy provisioning cost. The distributed home energy management systems receive the price signal and use mixed integer linear programming for optimal scheduling of load, storage, and generation devices. The method provides excellent scalability as well as autonomy for home owners and avoids load synchronization effects. As proof of concept, an optimization algorithm for determining a day-ahead price is applied in two case studies. An excellent conformance between a given reference load profile and the resulting aggregated load profile of all households is demonstrated.