Rapid growth in electricity network peak demand is increasing pressure for new investment which may be used for only a few hours a year. Residential air-conditioning is widely believed to be the prime cause of the rise in peak demand but, in the absence of detailed residential demand research, there is no bottom-up empirical evidence to support this supposition or to estimate its impact. This paper first examines the developments in network peak demand, at a national, network distribution, and local distribution feeder level to show recent trends in peak demand. Secondly, this paper applies analytics to the half-hourly consumption data of a sample of Ausgrid’s interval metered customers, combined with local weather data, to develop an algorithm which can recognize air-conditioner use and can identify consumption patterns and peak load. This estimate is then compared to system peaks to determine residential air-conditioning’s impact on overall demand. Finally, this paper considers the future impacts of air-conditioning load on peak demand as penetration rates reaches saturation levels and new minimum energy performance standards take effect reducing new units peak impacts.
CITATION STYLE
Smith, R., Meng, K., Dong, Z., & Simpson, R. (2013). Demand response: a strategy to address residential air-conditioning peak load in Australia. Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy, 1(3), 223–230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40565-013-0032-0
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