Air-Conditioning Load Characteristics and Peak Reduction Potential for Demand Response in A Residential Community

Abstract

The residential air-conditioning load (ACL) has been identified as a key contributor to demand peaks, especially in the summer season. Occurrence of such intensive electricity loads has been a challenge for generation and transmission networks to ensure the necessary supply capacity. However, the comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of residential AC use in the real community has been hampered by the limited availability of appliance level interval consumption data. This study used appliance level data measured by smart meters in a residential community of 586 households in Osaka, Japan, to evaluate the contribution of the ACL to the total demand peak in the summer season. The target households were classified into several groups based on their cooling usage preferences and introduced into two different demand response (DR) scenarios. The DR potentials for each group of households were compared to assess the peak reduction effectiveness in not only the whole community but also different groups of customers.