Development of a methodology for improving the effectiveness of customer response policies through electricity-price patterns

The main objective of electricity regulators when establishing electricity markets is to decrease the cost of electricity through competition. However, this scenario can not be achieved without a full participation of the electricity demand by reacting against electricity prices. The aim of this research is to develop tools for helping customers and aggregators to join price and demand response programs, while helping them to hedge against the risk of short-term price volatility. In this way, the capacity of and hybrid methodology (self-organizing maps and statistical ward's linkage) to classify high electricity market prices is analyzed. Besides, with the help of non-parametric estimation, some price-patterns were found in the above mentioned clusters. The knowledge contained within these patterns supplies customer market-based information on which to base its energy use decisions. The interest for this participation of customers in markets is growing in developed countries to obtain a higher elasticity in demand. Results show the capability of this approach to improve data management and select coherent policies to accomplish cleared demand offers amongst different price scenarios in a more flexible way.