Date of Award

Fall 1982

Project Type

Dissertation

Program or Major

Engineering

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Abstract

This work develops a time varying residential electric load model based on the philosophy that the availability of people to turn on electrical appliances and their tendency to do so at particular times are significant factors in determining the time varying nature of the residential load. Additional contributions to the load are the result of peoples availability and tendency to perform direct actions (e.g. dish washing) that indirectly cause electrical appliances (e.g. water heaters) to turn on and off under the control of their sensors. The availability and tendencies of the residents also affect, to some extent, the contribution to the load caused by weather conditions since the residents determine the settings of heating and cooling devices.

A general availability function is developed to estimate the number of persons available in the residence at a particular time. Proclivity (tendency) functions are developed to specify the probability that an appliance will be used at a particular time by an available person or that the person will perform an action which will result in the operation of some appliance.

Models for individual appliances, selected on the basis of their load significance, are developed using the foregoing functions together with operating characteristics of the appliances and estimates of power consumption for prevalent sizes. The individual appliance models are combined into a residential model with provisions for specifying characteristics of the residence. The model is used to simulate individual residences and groups of residences. Heating and cooling loads are not included in the simulation. The load curves generated by the simulation are compared to test data obtained during the Connecticut Light and Power Company Residential Load Test {1} for equivalent residences and groups of residences. The results indicate that the model has potential for estimating the time varying residential electric load.

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