Multi-objective optimal dispatch of household flexible loads based on their real-life operating characteristics and energy-related occupant behavior

• Published in: Building simulation Vol. 16; no. 11; pp. 2005 - 2025
• Main Authors: Luo, Zhengyi, Peng, Jinqing, Hu, Maomao, Liao, Wei, Fang, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Tsinghua University Press 01.11.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Building Construction and Design; Carbon dioxide; Cluster analysis; Clustering; Cover Article; Data mining; Energy consumption; Energy costs; Energy flexible buildings for resilient low carbon built environment and energy systems; Engineering; Engineering Thermodynamics; Heat and Mass Transfer; Households; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Multiple objective analysis; Optimization; Tariffs; Vector quantization; many-objective optimal dispatch; household load flexibility; NSGA-III; flexible load modeling; occupant energy usage behavior
• ISSN: 1996-3599; 1996-8744
• DOI: 10.1007/s12273-023-1036-y

A model-based optimal dispatch framework was proposed to optimize operation of residential flexible loads considering their real-life operating characteristics, energy-related occupant behavior, and the benefits of different stakeholders. A pilot test was conducted for a typical household. According to the monitored appliance-level data, operating characteristics of flexible loads were identified and the models of these flexible loads were developed using multiple linear regression and K-means clustering methods. Moreover, a data-mining approach was developed to extract the occupant energy usage behavior of various flexible loads from the monitored data. Occupant behavior of appliance usage, such as daily turn-on times, turn-on moment, duration of each operation, preference of temperature setting, and flexibility window, were determined by the developed data-mining approach. Based on the established flexible load models and the identified occupant energy usage behavior, a many-objective nonlinear optimal dispatch model was developed aiming at minimizing daily electricity costs, occupants’ dissatisfaction, CO 2 emissions, and the average ramping index of household power profiles. The model was solved with the assistance of the NSGA-III and TOPSIS methods. Results indicate that the proposed framework can effectively optimize the operation of household flexible loads. Compared with the benchmark, the daily electricity costs, CO 2 emissions, and average ramping index of household power profiles of the optimal plan were reduced by 7.3%, 6.5%, and 14.4%, respectively, under the TOU tariff, while those were decreased by 9.5%, 8.8%, and 23.8%, respectively, under the dynamic price tariff. The outputs of this work can offer guidance for the day-ahead optimal scheduling of household flexible loads in practice.