A methodology for energy key performance indicators analysis

Abstract

With the advent of the smart grid era, the electrical grid is becoming a complex network in which different technologies coexist to bring benefits to both customers and operators. This paper presents a methodology for analyzing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), providing knowledge about the performance and efficiency of energy systems, focusing on the demand side. In the first stage of the methodology, the baseline KPIs are calculated. In the second stage, all KPIs are updated to be compared with the baseline ones. In fact, due to the dynamic nature of players in a smart grid, this methodology plays a crucial role in the performance assessment. Moreover, the proper definition and selection of KPIs is usually a challenging task since KPIs can be applied to evaluate diverse areas within a smart grid. Such areas include building energy efficiency, home communications, and smart metering deployment, just to mention a few. In the proposed methodology, the information obtained from a KPI can be driven to distinct aspects such as efficiency, environment, reliability, power quality, safety, security, or cost reduction. Through a case study from a real implementation of an energy system, we show how to assess energy consumption efficiency, thus improving energy management.