Partial load shedding using ant colony algorithm in smart grid environment

Effective power distribution methodology is one of the basic necessities to meet the increasing power demand in any power system. Load shedding is done when power demand is more than power generation, to sustain the power system stability. Load shedding methods followed today shed a particular load completely, neglecting the critical consumers within the system. Controlling the loads at individual utility level in smart grid system enables us to put a maximum power limit on utility. Hence by partially shedding the load, demand can be reduced. The technique used here utilizes ant colony algorithm to choose a maximum power limit for each load dynamically based on the importance and priority of load. This method forces the consumer to manage his load internally based on criticality. It also effectively makes use of availability based tariff schemes.