Demand response: a strategy to address residential air-conditioning peak load in Australia

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.