Algorithmic and Strategic Aspects to Integrating Demand-Side Aggregation and Energy Management Methods

Demand-side participation schemes are employed to alter customers' use of electrical power. The design of a complete scheme comprises two separate sub-problems, a customer's local power and energy management problem, and the task of aggregating many customers into a usable coordinated demand-side energy resource. These are usually treated separately. This paper identifies the challenges of integrating the two sub-problems and maps the space of alternative formulations and configurations. Accordingly, the subject of this paper is home energy management systems and residential demand-side aggregation (RDSA) methods, with a focus on the assumptions underpinning both and the practical requirements that an integrated aggregation system should satisfy. This paper analyzes the consequences of choosing specific scheduling frameworks, preference models and aggregation mechanisms for RDSA, and identifies the tensions that exist between various proposed model formulations and optimization methods. By elucidating the implicit tradeoffs that come with choosing an RDSA scheme's configuration, this paper provides a guide to the most appropriate applications of the range of energy management and aggregation techniques proposed in the literature as part of an integrated scheme.