A Rigorous Standalone Literature Review of Residential Electricity Load Profiles

Abstract

The introduction of smart meters and time-use survey data is helping decision makers to understand the residential electricity consumption behaviour behind load profiles. However, it can be difficult to obtain the actual detailed consumption data due to privacy issues. Synthesising residential electricity consumption profiles may be an alternative way to develop synthetic load profiles that initially starts by reviewing the existing synthetic load profile methods. The purpose of this review is to identify the recent methods for synthesising residential electricity load profiles by conducting a rigorous standalone literature review. This review study has been applied and presented transparently and is replicable by other researchers. The review has answered the following research questions: the definition, concept and roles of residential electricity load profile and synthesised data; recent approaches and methods; research purposes; applicable simulations and validation methods of the final selected studies. The results show that the most applied approach in modelling residential electricity load profiles is the bottom-up approach. As it is detailed, it suitable to reflect the local residential behaviour in electricity consumption. Consequently, it is more complex to develop and calibrate the model as identified in the results. Bottom-up models are more powerful in analysing energy consumptions that focus on behavioural patterns, dwelling profiles and control strategies.