Residential Load Simulator for Demand-side Management (DSM)

With the increasing demand for energy in all human activities today comes the inherent challenges of energy generation, transmission, distribution and consumption, and ultimately, management. Different technologies, such as the Smart Grid System, have been developed over the years to solve many problems associated with energy demand and supply in many countries. However, several aspects still require innovative system designs and controls to solve. One is the energy management system's demand side management (DSM). The residential sector requires the most efficient energy management schemes of the three basic categories of electricity consumers. This paper approaches the challenge of developing a Residential Load Simulator using MATLAB-GUIDE for estimating and visualizing the energy consumption and cost implication of energy used in typical Nigerian homes. The Simulator models four categories of houses and eight common electrical appliances. The energy consumption and cost effect are estimated for 24 hours per day, 5 weekdays, 2 weekends, and one month. The granularity of estimation is hourly.