Demand side management with stepped model predictive control

Despite more and more photovoltaic installations in residential electricity networks, community peak demand is often not reduced because of evening peaks occurring outside of solar hours. Air conditioning has been a key reason for these peak demands for many developed countries. To better cope with this type of peak demand, this paper proposes a new Stepped Model Predictive Control (SMPC) strategy to perform real time control whilst considering occupant comfort and future uncertainties. This strategy has been tested with a community case study. The case study shows that with the SMPC, peak demand reduction be achieved whilst maintaining residents' comfort. Before the introduction of compulsory demand tariff for all customers in near future, this study presents a practically implementable control strategy to reduce peak demand without adding electrochemical energy storage systems.