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