Load Profile-Based Residential Customer Segmentation for Analyzing Customer Preferred Time-of-Use (TOU) Tariffs

Abstract

Smart meters and dynamic pricing are key factors in implementing a smart grid. Dynamic pricing is one of the demand-side management methods that can shift demand from on-peak to off-peak. Furthermore, dynamic pricing can help utilities reduce the investment cost of a power system by charging different prices at different times according to system load profile. On the other hand, a dynamic pricing strategy that can satisfy residential customers is required from the customer’s perspective. Residential load profiles can be used to comprehend residential customers’ preferences for electricity tariffs. In this study, in order to analyze the preference for time-of-use (TOU) rates of Korean residential customers through residential electricity consumption data, a representative load profile for each customer can be found by utilizing the hourly consumption of median. In the feature extraction stage, six features that can explain the customer’s daily usage patterns are extracted from the representative load profile. Korean residential load profiles are clustered into four groups using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) with Bayesian information criterion (BIC), which helps find the optimal number of groups, in the clustering stage. Furthermore, a choice experiment (CE) is performed to identify Korean residential customers’ preferences for TOU with selected attributes. A mixed logit model with a Bayesian approach is used to estimate each group’s customer preference for attributes of a time-of-use (TOU) tariff. Finally, a TOU tariff for each group’s load profile is recommended using the estimated part-worth.

Keywords

• demand side management
• demand response
• time-of-use tariff
• smart grids
• load profile
• Gaussian mixture model