Study on the residential load profiles in Brunei Darussalam based on income and location

Abstract

Brunei Darussalam has the highest electricity consumption per capita among Southeast Asian countries. This high electricity consumption dramatically contributes to environmental issues because gas is the primary source of energy generation in Brunei. Hence, the government must come up with measures to counter the issues. However, before providing solutions, it is also vital to understand electricity consumption behaviour, especially in the residential sector. The residential sector in Brunei has the second highest electricity consumption, and the government heavily subsidizes it. This paper aims to study the residential load profiles in Brunei based on the locations of the households and the total monthly incomes per household. The data for this study was obtained through an online questionnaire to calculate household electrical appliance usage patterns. The result of the study shows that the residential load profiles are almost the same despite the different locations and salaries of the households. However, upon looking at the total daily consumption, Temburong has minor electricity consumption of 50 kWh, while the rest uses about 80 kWh daily. Also, the study showed that the higher the income, the higher the electricity consumption of the households. Lastly, air-conditioning shows the highest daily electricity consumption, more than 50% of the total usage.