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.