The impact of smart grid residential energy management schemes on the carbon footprint of the household electricity consumption

Abstract

Smart grid provides remarkable opportunities for residential energy management. Residential energy management covers a large number of devices and techniques, from basic components, such as energy saving light bulbs to more complex methods, such as coordinating the household load. With the use of smart meters, smart grid enables two-way communication between the utilities and their consumers, where energy management becomes possible for both sides. Smart meters provide time-related consumption information which is used in Time Of Use (TOU) pricing. In TOU pricing, the price of electricity varies according to the time of consumption. For instance, the price of electricity is the highest during peak hours, i.e. when the load on the grid reaches its highest level. In peak hours, utilities bring peaker plants online which use more expensive resources such as coal, natural gas, etc. Besides, these resources have higher GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This implies that the time of consumption affects the carbon footprint of the consumers. Recently proposed energy management schemes rely on coordinating the appliances to avoid peak hour consumption and to make use of renewable energy sources. In this paper, we investigate the impact of these energy management schemes on the carbon footprint of an household due to electricity consumption. We show that energy management schemes decrease the peak hour usage of the appliances which consequently, decreases the carbon footprint of the consumers.