Integrated high-resolution modelling of domestic electricity demand and low voltage electricity distribution networks

Assessing the impact of domestic low-carbon technologies on the electricity distribution network requires a detailed insight into the operation of networks and the power demands of consumers. When used on a wide-scale, low-carbon technologies, including domestic scale micro-generation, heat pumps, electric vehicles and flexible demand, will change the nature of domestic electricity use. In providing a basis for the quantification of the impact upon distribution networks, this thesis details the construction and use of a high-resolution integrated model that simulates both existing domestic electricity use and low voltage distribution networks. Electricity demand is modelled at the level of individual household appliances and is based upon surveyed occupant time-use data. This approach results in a simulation that exhibits realistic time-variant demand characteristics, in both individual dwellings, as well as, groups of dwellings together. Validation is performed against real domestic electricity use data, measured for this purpose, from dwellings in Loughborough in the East Midlands, UK. The low voltage distribution network is modelled using real network data, and the output of its simulation is validated against measured network voltages and power demands. The integrated model provides a highly detailed insight into the operation of networks at a one-minute resolution. This integrated model is the main output of this research, alongside published articles and a freely downloadable software implementation of the demand model

Integrated simulation of photovoltaic micro-generation and domestic electricity demand: a one-minute resolution open source model

Domestic photovoltaic (PV) generation can partially offset the electricity demand within an individual dwelling. The net demand may be readily estimated on an annual basis but modelling its import and export, with respect to time, is more complex. A key issue is that domestic electricity demand, particularly lighting, is significantly influenced by the outdoor light level, which of course also has a direct effect on PV generation. Thus, realistic time-step simulation of the net demand requires that the two components are modelled with respect to a common representation of the solar irradiance. This paper presents the construction of an integrated model that provides data at a oneminute time resolution, built upon a fully validated high-resolution electricity demand model. An open-source software implementation of the integrated model in VBA within Microsoft Excel is described and is available for free download

Highly distributed power systems: distribution network modelling and demand simulation

Assessing the impact of large quantities of domestic micro-generation on the low-voltage distribution network, requires detailed simulation of the existing networks and time-varying power demands. This project aims to construct a high-resolution model of an actual distribution network, to include the simulation of the minute-by-minute demands, particularly in residential areas, where high penetrations of micro-generation could be deployed. The resulting model will provide a platform to assess the implications of highly distributed power systems and to look at the network response to demand side management (DSM) measures. The project encompasses a case study of Loughborough, where an analysis of domestic electricity use is being performed, through the high-resolution capture of residential electricity use data. The project is supported by E.ON UK and by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK, within the Supergen 3 Highly Distributed Power Systems Consortium. The poster provides an overview of the work performed so far in constructing the integrated network model and residential demand simulations

Smart meter data: balancing consumer privacy concerns with legitimate applications

Smart meters are being rolled out in large numbers throughout the world, with proponents claiming they are a critical step in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Yet there are significant unresolved negative reactions to smart meters, principally based on the concern that smart meters might be used to infer the private activities that occur within a dwelling. Though smart meter data is classified as personal data, and as such protected under existing data protection frameworks in the EU, there are relevant exceptions, notably where the data is required for legitimate applications associated with the performance of 'regulated duties'. This paper contributes to this debate by examining the data requirements for some of the proposed applications of smart meter data within the electricity supply industry, and investigates whether the use of personal data can be minimized or even avoided. The discussion includes system balancing, demand reduction, demand response and distribution network operation and planning, and indicates that, for most of these applications, the requirements for personal data can indeed be minimized. 'Privacy friendly' alternatives are discussed

Energy use in the context of behaviour and practice: the interdisciplinary challenge in modelling flexible electricity demand

Moving towards a low carbon energy system in line with energy policy requires that we more fully appreciate the relationship between people and the technology they use. Specifically, in a future electricity grid dominated by renewables we may need to consider our response to an intermittent electricity supply. This has significant implications for energy practices. Traditionally engineering approaches have focused on technology, whilst sociological approaches have people as their main object of study. A practice based approach has the relationship between the two at its core and so there is the potential to combine their methodologies in new interdisciplinary ways. This paper proposes that analysing household practices can better represent domestic energy consumption in context and that this may therefore be used to build more representative models

Domestic electricity use: a high-resolution energy demand model

The pattern of electricity use in an individual domestic dwelling is highly dependent upon the activities of the occupants and their associated use of electrical appliances. This paper presents a high-resolution model of domestic electricity use, that is based upon a combination of patterns of active occupancy (i.e. when people are at home and awake), and daily activity profiles that characterise how people spend their time performing certain activities. One-minute resolution synthetic electricity demand data is created through the simulation of appliance use; the model covers all major appliances commonly found in the domestic environment. In order to validate the model, electricity demand was recorded over the period of a year within 22 dwellings in the East Midlands, UK. A thorough quantitative comparison is made between the synthetic and measured data sets, showing them to have similar statistical characteristics. A freely downloadable example of the model is made available and may be configured to the particular requirements of users or incorporated into other models

Simulation of high-resolution domestic electricity demand based on a building occupancy model and its applicability to the study of demand side management

Alongside the well understood need to reduce overall electricity consumption, there is an increasing need to provide demand response: the ability to time shift electrical demand in accordance with available low-carbon generation including wind, marine and solar power. Many domestic loads can readily be employed to provide time shifting demand response in the range of minutes to hours and this concept is already the subject of numerous demonstrations worldwide. The modelling presented in this paper provides a basis for the quantification of the availability and impact of demand response in the domestic sector. In particular, this paper describes the development of a domestic electricity demand model capable of providing data with a one-minute time resolution and with which the operation of demand response may be assessed. The electricity demand model is constructed at the level of individual household appliances and their usage is based on surveyed time-use data. This provides for appropriate temporal diversity of energy use between simulated dwellings. Occupancy data allows the correlated usage of appliances to be represented within an actively occupied dwelling, as well as representing the sharing of appliances, such as lighting, in dwellings with multiple occupants. This paper summarises previously developed occupancy and lighting models and explains how the lighting model can be extended to create an integrated appliance model

Die von den HI-LO- und Aerobic-Tanz-Programmen bewirkten Veränderungen in motorischen Fähigkeiten und morphologischen Eigenschaften bei jungen Frauen

In previous studies a number of authors have already demonstrated the positive changes in certain dimensions of the anthropological status of female aerobic dancers induced by various treatments of modern aerobic dance programmes. Changes in motor space have been, however, rarely investigated. The authors have attempted in the present paper to define the potential differential training effects of the step (N = 24) and hi-lo (N = 23) aerobic dance programmes and to analyse the changes in the morphological (variables assessing voluminosity of the body and skinfold thickness) and motor (coordination, flexibility, movement frequency) measures of college-aged female participants. The entire programme consisted of a total of 25 separate aerobics training sessions (three times a week; each session of 60 min). Each session encompassed cardio-section routines, which consisted of the experimental aerobic dance programmes (35 min), strength- developing exercises (15 min) and stretching exercises (10 min). The results, obtained by means of ANOVA and discriminant analysis, suggest both programmes resulted in reduced skinfold measures and in improved measures of flexibility, coordination in rhythm and, to a lesser extent, measures of movement frequency. No differential influence of the two programmes of aerobic dance was confirmed.Uvod Programi suvremene aerobike danas su jedan od najpopularnijih oblika rekreativnog tjelesnog vježbanja. U dosadašnjim istraživanjima autori su ukazali na pozitivne promjene pojedinih dimenzija antropološkog statusa vježbaČica pod utjecajem tretmana suvremene aerobike (primjerice, Kravitz i sur., 1993). Međutim, promjene u motoričkim sposobnostima rijetko su se istraživale. Ovaj rad pokušao je ukazati na potencijalne diferencijalne učinke programa step (N = 24) i hi-lo aerobike (N = 23), ali i analizirati promjene u morfološkim (varijable za procjenu voluminoznosti i debljine kožnih nabora) i motoričkim mjerama (koordinacija, fleksibilnost, frekvencija pokreta) u sudionica programa. Metode Ukupan tretman sastojao se od 25 pojedinačnih treninga aerobike (3 puta tjedno). Svaki pojedini trening uključivao je: cardio sekciju koja je sadržavala eksperimentalne programe aerobike (35 minuta), vježbe snage (15 minuta) i vježbe istezanja (10 minuta). Za obradu rezultata korištena je diskriminacijska analiza, kojom je utvrđena značajnost razlika između skupina u motoričkom i morfološkom prostoru u inicijalnom i finalnom mjerenju. Analizom varijance utvrđene su razlike između inicijalnog i finalnog mjerenja za svaku pojedinu skupinu. Rezultati, rasprava i zaključak Diskriminacijskom nalizom nije utvrđena značajnost razlika u motoričkom prostoru u inicijalnom mjerenju (Wilks lambda = 0.45; p > 0.05) ni u finalnom mjerenju (Wilks lambda = 0.42; p > 0.05). Razlike među skupinama nisu uočene ni u morfološkom prostoru, ni u inicijalnom (Wilks lambda = 0.64; p > 0.05) ni u finalnom mjerenju (Wilks lambda = 0.76; p > 0.05). Analiza varijance ukazala je na značajne promjene u morfološkim varfijablama i to u pogledu smanjenja kožnih nabora, ali su izostale značajne promjene u mjerama opsega tjelesnih regija. Iste su promjene uočene i u eksperimentalnoj skupini koja je provodila program step aerobike, kao i u eksperimentalnoj skupini koja je provodila program hi-lo aerobike. U motoričkim su varijablama značajna poboljšanja rezultata uočena u mjerama fleksibilnosti donjih ekstremiteta (u obje grupe), ali ne i u mjerama fleksibilnosti ramenog pojasa. Te se promjene mogu pripisati učincima vježba istezanja koje su se izvodile na kraju svake trenažne jedinice. Nadalje, u mjerama frekvencije pokreta također je došlo do značajnih poboljšanje rezultata, što se vjerojatno može pripisati utjecaju smanjenja potkožnog masnog tkiva na motoričke manifestacije koje se izvode u testiranju frekvencije pokreta. U mjerama koordinacije, a naročito u mjerama koordinacije u ritmu također su uočena značajna poboljšanja rezultata koja su, prema mišljenju autora, nastala zbog interakcijskog djelovanja slijedećih faktora: ● utjecaja promjena morfološke strukture ispitanica na promjene u motorickim manifestacijama koordinacije u ritmu; ● stvarnog napretka u koordinaciji u ritmu. Naime, vrlo je vjerojatno da su promjene u navedenim motoričkim sposobnostima dijelom uvjetovane prvim, a dijelom drugim faktorom. U ovom trenutku ne može se utvrditi koliko je koji faktor doprinio utvrđenim razlikama između inicijalnog i finalnog mjerenja, tim više što je diferencijalnost utjecaja i u ovom pogledu izostala. Odgovore na ova pitanja mogla bi dati daljnja istraživanja koja bi se provela na manje selekcioniranim uzorcima ispitanica. U tom slučaju moguće je da bi veći inicijalni varijabilitet rezultata u pojedinim mjerama omogucio definiranje određenog diferencijalnog utjecaja. U tom bi slučaju bilo moguće, u određenoj mjeri, eliminirati utjecaj morfoloških promjena na promjene motoričkih sposobnosti i time objektivnije definirati promjene u motoričkom prostoru, nastale pod utjecajem različitih programa aerobike.In vielen bisherigen Forschungen wiesen die Autoren auf positive im modernen Aerobic-Training entstandenen Veränderungen einzelner Abmessungen im anthropologischen Status der Aerobic-Tänzerinnen hin, wobei die Veränderungen in motorischen Eigenschaften dagegen selten untersucht wurden. In dieser Arbeit ist man bemüht, die potentiell unterschiedlichen Auswirkungen von Step- (N=4) und HI-LO-Aerobicprogrammen (N=23) festzustellen, aber auch die Veränderungen in morphologischen Eigenschaften (Variablen zur Feststellung von Hörperumfängen und von Dicke der Hautfalten) und motorischen Fähigkeiten (Hoordination, Gelenkigkeit, Bewegungsfrequenz) bei den Programmteilnehmerinnen, die 18 – 21 Jahren alt waren, zu untersuchen. Das Gesamtprogramm bestand aus 25 Trainingseinheiten (3mal wöchentlich je 60 Minuten die Dauer). Jede Trainingseinheit schloss das Cardio-Training ein, das aus experimentalen Aerobic- Tanz-Programmen (35 Minuten), Hraftübungen (15 Minuten) und Dehnungsübungen (10 Minuten) bestand. Die mittels der Varianz- und Diskriminanzanalyse erhaltenen Resultate weisen darauf hin, dass beide Programme sowohl zur Abnahme von Maßzahlen der Hautfalten als auch zur Verbesserung in der Gelenkigkeit und Rhythmus-Hoordination führen aber die Bewegungsfrequenzen nur gering beeinflussen. Heine differenzier- baren Einflüsse zwischen den beiden Aerobic-Tanz-Programmen wurden festgestellt

Integrated domestic electricity demand and PV micro-generation model

This Excel Workbook provides an integrated high-resolution model of domestic whole house electricity demand and solar PV micro-generation. The simulation incorporates and utilises a previously developed model of domestic electricity demand (http://hdl.handle.net/2134/5786). The Workbook contains all the necessary data to run the simulation and includes the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) source code. The demand model is discussed in the journal paper "Domestic electricity use: a high-resolution energy demand model" (http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6997) and the fully integrated model is discussed in a conference paper presented at Microgen 'II (http://hdl.handle.net/2134/8774)

Domestic electricity demand model - simulation example

This Excel Workbook provides a high-resolution model of domestic whole house electricity demand. The use of domestic appliances within a single UK dwelling is simulated over a 24-hour period at a one-minute time resolution. The simulation incorporates and utilises previously developed models of active occupancy (http://hdl.handle.net/2134/3112) and domestic lighting (http://hdl.handle.net/2134/4065). The user may configure the month of the year, the total number of residents that live at the dwelling and whether a week day or a weekend day simulation is required. The Workbook contains all the necessary data to run the simulation and includes the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) source code. The model is discussed in the journal paper "Domestic electricity use: a high-resolution energy demand model" (http://hdl.handle.net/2134/6997)