Flexible residential smart grid simulation framework

Different scheduling and coordination algorithms controlling household appliances´ operations can potentially lead to energy consumption reduction and/or load balancing in conjunction with different electricity pricing methods used in smart grid programs. In order to easily implement different algorithms and evaluate their efficiency against other ideas, a flexible simulation framework is desirable in both research and business fields. However, such a platform is currently lacking or underdeveloped. As a result, this paper proposes a simulation framework to focus on demand side residential energy consumption coordination in response to different pricing methods. This simulation framework, equipped with an appliance consumption library using realistic values, aims to closely represent the average usage of different types of appliances. The simulation results from a prototype program built from the proposed framework yield closely matching values compared to surveyed real life consumption records. Several sample coordination algorithms, pricing schemes, and communication scenarios are also implemented to illustrate the use of the simulation framework.