User Equilibrium of Demand Response in Smart Grid

Abstract

Demand response enables numerous small-scale consumers to minimize their costs as independent decision-makers. Consequently, the power system operation is dominated by the equilibrium of multiple end-users. This paper proposes the concept of user equilibrium of DR in the smart grid representing a state that no end-users can profit more by adjusting their own consumption. Then the user equilibrium is reformulated as the solution of a convex programming problem, named as the user equilibrium problem. The corresponding proof is also provided. An efficient solution algorithm is proposed to obtain the equilibrium among numerous end-users based on the branch-and-price method. Compared with the existing works, the operating constraints of flexible loads are modelled in details and can be considered. Numerical examples are presented to validate the proposed concept and method.