Multi-agent Simulation of Households’ Behaviors Towards Hourly Electricity Price Scheme in Denmark

Abstract

Successful implementation of the Danish smart grid strategy requires Danish households to actively participate in balancing the electricity grid by adjusting their electricity consumption to the fluctuating production from wind power. However, the spontaneous nature of households' energy consumption behavior and their lack of knowledge regarding the overall picture of the energy system might prevent them from adopting the necessary smart energy solutions. Therefore, this paper investigates households' adoption behaviors under the hourly electricity price scheme and analyses the consequence to the electricity grid using multi-agent based simulation. The results show that there is no significant incentive for households to change their behavior to respond to the hourly electricity price scheme with the current tariffs in Denmark. Furthermore, the study shows that automatic energy management systems are needed for households to predict and plan their consumption to respond to the hourly electricity price signals, and that distribution system operators can consider to use an overload tariff to avoid the congestion in the distribution grid, especially with the introduction of more electric vehicles.