Empirical Investigations of the Opportunity Limits of Automatic Residential Electric Load Shaping

Residential electric load shaping is often implemented as infrequent, utility-initiated, short-duration deferral of peak demand through direct load control. In contrast, investigated herein is the potential for frequent, transactive, intraday, consumer-configurable load shaping for storage-capable thermostatically controlled electric loads (TCLs) including refrigerators, freezers, and hot water heaters. Unique to this study are 28 months of 15-minute-interval observations of usage in 101 homes in the Pacific Northwest United States that specify start, duration, and usage patterns of approximately 25 submetered loads per home. The magnitudes of the load shift from voluntarily-participating TCL appliances are aggregated to form hourly upper and lower load-shaping limits for the coordination of electrical generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and demand. Empirical data are statistically analyzed to define metrics that help quantify load-shaping opportunities.