The smart grid concept continues to evolve and various methods have been developed to enhance the energy efficiency of the electricity infrastructure. Demand Response (DR) is considered as the most cost-effective and reliable solution for the smoothing of the demand curve, when the system is under stress. DR refers to a procedure that is applied to motivate changes in the customers' power consumption habits, in response to incentives regarding the electricity prices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of various DR schemes and programs, based on the motivations offered to the consumers to participate in the program. We classify the proposed DR schemes according to their control mechanism, to the motivations offered to reduce the power consumption and to the DR decision variable. We also present various optimization models for the optimal control of the DR strategies that have been proposed so far. These models are also categorized, based on the target of the optimization procedure. The key aspects that should be considered in the optimization problem are the system's constraints and the computational complexity of the applied optimization algorithm.

A Survey on Demand Response Programs in Smart Grids: Pricing Methods and Optimization Algorithms

Demand side management in smart grid: A review and proposals for future direction

In recent years, the research community has witnessed an explosion of literature dealing with the mimicking of behavioral patterns and social phenomena observed in nature towards efficiently solving complex computational tasks. This trend has been especially dramatic in what relates to optimization problems, mainly due to the unprecedented complexity of problem instances, arising from a diverse spectrum of domains such as transportation, logistics, energy, climate, social networks, health and industry 4.0, among many others. Notwithstanding this upsurge of activity, research in this vibrant topic should be steered towards certain areas that, despite their eventual value and impact on the field of bio-inspired computation, still remain insufficiently explored to date. The main purpose of this paper is to outline the state of the art and to identify open challenges concerning the most relevant areas within bio-inspired optimization. An analysis and discussion are also carried out over the general trajectory followed in recent years by the community working in this field, thereby highlighting the need for reaching a consensus and joining forces towards achieving valuable insights into the understanding of this family of optimization techniques.

Bio-inspired computation: Where we stand and what's next

The fast-paced development of power systems necessitates smart grids to facilitate real-time control and monitoring with bidirectional communication and electricity flows. Future smart grids are expected to have reliable, efficient, secured, and cost-effective power management with the implementation of distributed architecture. To focus on these requirements, we provide a comprehensive survey on different cloud computing applications for the smart grid architecture, in three different areas— energy management , information management , and security . In these areas, the utility of cloud computing applications is discussed, while giving directions on future opportunities for the development of the smart grid. We also highlight different challenges existing in the conventional smart grid (without cloud application) that can be overcome using cloud. In this survey, we present a synthesized overview of the current state of research on smart grid development. We also identify the current research problems in the areas of cloud-based energy management, information management, and security in smart grid.

Cloud Computing Applications for Smart Grid: A Survey

Load forecasting (LF) plays important role in planning and operation of power systems. It is envisioned that future smart grids will utilize LF and dynamic pricing based techniques for effective Demand Side Management (DSM). This paper presents a comprehensive and comparative review of the LF and dynamic pricing schemes in smart grid environment. Real Time Pricing (RTP), Time of Use (ToU) and Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) are discussed in detail. Two major categories of LF: mathematical and artificial intelligence based computational models are elaborated with subcategories. Mathematical models including auto recursive, moving average, auto recursive moving average, auto recursive integrated moving average, exponential smoothing, iterative reweighted mean square, multiple regression, etc. used for effective DSM are discussed. Neural networks, fuzzy logic, expert systems of the second major category of LF models have also been described.

Load forecasting, dynamic pricing and DSM in smart grid: A review

Demand side management (DSM) is one of the important functions in a smart grid that allows customers to make informed decisions regarding their energy consumption, and helps the energy providers reduce the peak load demand and reshape the load profile. This results in increased sustainability of the smart grid, as well as reduced overall operational cost and carbon emission levels. Most of the existing demand side management strategies used in traditional energy management systems employ system specific techniques and algorithms. In addition, the existing strategies handle only a limited number of controllable loads of limited types. This paper presents a demand side management strategy based on load shifting technique for demand side management of future smart grids with a large number of devices of several types. The day-ahead load shifting technique proposed in this paper is mathematically formulated as a minimization problem. A heuristic-based Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) that easily adapts heuristics in the problem was developed for solving this minimization problem. Simulations were carried out on a smart grid which contains a variety of loads in three service areas, one with residential customers, another with commercial customers, and the third one with industrial customers. The simulation results show that the proposed demand side management strategy achieves substantial savings, while reducing the peak load demand of the smart grid.

Demand Side Management in Smart Grid Using Heuristic Optimization

This paper presents a Multi-Agent System (MAS) for Demand Side Management (DSM) in smart grid which uses an energy market for resource allocation. The multi-agent system contains Load Agents, Generator Agents and DSM Agent, which provides an electronic auction platform. The automation of the demand side management through the multi-agent system is equipped with an intelligent strategy which allows controllable devices to dynamically react to market changes and adapt their bidding behaviours accordingly. The agents are able to shift energy demand within certain boundaries from peak hours to off-peak hours to minimize the operational cost of the system. Simulation studies were carried out on the developed multi-agent system and the results show that the proposed approach provides a smoothed load curve for the whole system while operational cost and peak demand are reduced.

Tan Zong Shun

Papers

Demand Side Management in Smart Grid Using Heuristic Optimization

Multi-Agent System for Demand Side Management in smart grid