Time Division Switching Model for Supervised Scheduling of Air Conditioners as Demand Side Management

Abstract

Air conditioners (ACs), are significant elements in demand side management (DSM) as they typically occupy the largest share of demand in a residential building. To tackle situations with an extreme energy crisis, a direct load control (DLC) based scheduling strategy can be employed instead of an area-wise hourly load-shedding approach. By controlling the AC loads in a supervised manner, the peak demand can be reduced and a good amount of energy can be saved. In this paper, an AC switching model is presented where an hour is divided among all the ACs in a building equally. The model generates a profile for all ACs which is used for switching. To cut a specific amount of demand each AC should get a reduced number of minutes of runtime. The developed model is simulated considering 30 ACs and the accomplishment of the load cut goal is verified with DLC requirements ranging from 0 to 51 kW. The results exhibit the novelty of the proposed model in peak demand reduction and energy saving.