Cost-Efficient Residential Load Scheduling in Smart Grid

To improve the economical efficiency of the residential electricity consumption, in this paper we introduce a novel concept of cost efficiency-based residential load scheduling framework. The cost efficiency is defined as a ratio of consumer's total consumption benefit and its total electricity payment during a certain period. We develop a cost-efficient load scheduling algorithm for the demand-side's day-ahead bidding process based on a fractional programming approach. We found that the proposed scheduling algorithm can effectively reflect and affect user's consumption behavior and achieve the optimal costefficient energy consumption profile. For practical consideration, we also take into account the service fee in calculating the cost-efficiency in practical smart grid applications, and analyse its effect on the cost efficiency. Simulation results confirm that the proposed algorithm significantly improves consumer's cost efficiency compared with the conventional payoff maximization algorithm. It also shows that a higher service fee will considerably decrease the cost efficiency.