Exploring household's flexibility of smart shifting atomic loads to improve power grid operation and cost efficiency

This paper explores the possibilities of shifting certain
household consumer-based loads in time, to reduce unnecessary
load peaks to the grid which again can cause challenges for
Distribution System Operators (DSOs). Historical measured data
on household consumption and the consumption profile of certain
household appliances (dishwashers, washing machines and
dryers) that can be shiftable in time are being used in an
optimization model to investigate the potential that shifting these
loads may have on the overall grid consumption of aggregated
groups of households. The results indicate that such a model is a
viable approach to effectively lower the peak load with respect to
these appliances, even with consumer behavior and the
inconvenience to perform these shifts accounted for. However, the
contribution of the considered household appliances is arguably
modest with respect to the total load of the household.

household flexibility, consumer demand, shiftable
atomic loads, smart grid, optimization model