An algorithm for micro-load shedding in generation constrained electricity distribution network

Abstract

Adequate generation capacity to meet the increasing demand of electricity has remained the main focus of both developed and developing economies. In order to maintain the safety of generation and distribution systems, constant load shedding is employed to maintain equilibrium between overall generation and total demand per unit period. This paper proposes a distribution management algorithm to micro-load manage the load shedding process by considering households and all electricity based devices as unique loads that can be individually managed. Consequently, the proposed algorithm prevents total blackout in communities affected by the load shedding. Experiments were conducted on a simulation environment made up of over a 25 households each equipped with a smart meter, and loads of varied quantity and types. The results obtained from the experiment show that our proposed micro-load management algorithm is effective for micro-load managing demands in near real time.