Planning of on/off devices with minimum run-times

Abstract

To be able to reach objectives such as peak shaving or self-consumption within smart grids, it becomes increasingly important to control smart grid ready devices within households. This paper explores the planning of devices with minimal runtime constraints and constraints on total cumulative production (e.g., buffer level), such as heat pumps and electric vehicles. For such devices, a novel dynamic programming formulation is presented that makes it possible to find the optimal planning in O(N2) time and space, where N is the number of time intervals. To evaluate the algorithm, we integrate it into an existing decentralized demand side management approach. This evaluation shows using simulations that a load curve within a neighborhood can be flattened this way.