Price naming on home appliance load controls in real-time pricing environment

The EPAct 2005 expresses the Federal Government's commitment to provide supporting infrastructures for electricity demand response to all classes of customers. Most end-use residential consumers are not able to participate in such program under current price structure. They are billed monthly with a static constant rate regardless of fluctuating true costs of electricity in real-time. With the increased participation from residential customers, problems leading to electricity crises can be lessened. Our research introduces a load control strategy, applying the familiar “price naming” concept, as a supporting tool for the forthcoming developments of the residential consumer's demand response. Samples of hourly home appliance load profiles are simulated using the Market Clearing Price Energy (MCPE) of ERCOT as pseudo real-time prices. The resulting cost savings and their corresponding waiting times are discussed to exhibit the trade-offs between the twos. The results show that our proposed strategy is promising and simple enough to be applicable for end-use residential consumers.