Commercial load scheduling through a time-of-use schedule with electricity demand charges.

摘要

This thesis proposes a mathematical program that models the energy consumption and energy demand values using a time-of-use electricity rate structure. Using large commercial or industrial machines with electrical motors, the model will determine which machines will be turned on and off during a certain amount of time. Through the Integer Program, we show that by letting machines run longer and staggering the starts of machines, the electricity costs for a typical day can be greatly reduced. Also, we add a parameter that specifies the total running time of each machine which prevents a loss in productivity for a business. We test our model with both random parameters as well as with an example that uses values from the refrigeration industry. We show by using an optimized running schedule for all machines that energy costs can be greatly reduced compared to a typical un-optimized machine run schedule.