Demand side focused simulation platform for the evaluation of demand side management approaches

The increasing importance of demand side management (DSM) has led to the proposal of various DSM approaches consisting of load control strategies and electricity contract types. These new DSM approaches need to be evaluated to ensure their feasibility and effectiveness. Existing simulation tools can be applied for use in the evaluation. However, these tools often focus on the supplier side and disregard consumer behavior and needs. In this paper, we propose a simulation platform that was built specifically to provide insights on the effect of the approaches to consumers in terms of discomfort and decreased electricity costs. We demonstrate the use of our platform with a case study involving two approaches, direct load control and our proposed consumer-centric load control.