Assessing the influence of the aggregation level of residential consumers through load duration curves

Abstract

Residential electricity consumers at present pose a major challenge to simulate due to their inherent stochastic nature. However, as this sector represents approximately one fourth of the total electricity consumption across the European Union, it is necessary to gain more insight in their consumption, both on an individual as well as on an aggregated level. In this work, we propose the use of load duration curves (LDCs) to characterize residential consumers. We construct LDCs for individual as well as artificially aggregated groups of residential consumers, and present how these LDCs can lead to a better understanding of what influence the aggregation level has on key characteristics of the consumption profile, how aggregation affects the height and duration of the peak demand, and what inherent trade-offs are present at higher aggregation levels.