Fuzzy logic-based direct load control of residential electric water heaters and air conditioners recognizing customer preferences in a deregulated environment

With the impending deregulation of electric utility industry, customer satisfaction with utility services will be crucial. Utilities will need to place a greater emphasis on their customers' preferences and desires. This would include the recognition and inclusion of customer comfort and satisfaction into utility demand side management programs. This paper presents a fuzzy logic-based water heater and air conditioner direct load controller recognizing several important customer preferences and desires. Study results show that the proposed controller successfully shifts the average power demand of customer loads and thus improves the utility's load factor.