A Win-Win Algorithm for Learning the Flexibility of Aggregated Residential Appliances

In the Demand Side Management (DSM) context, residential customers have the potential for reducing costs and relieving the grid with non-thermostatic appliances. These appliances might be optimally scheduled by a central entity, taking into account user preferences. However, the user might not be able to communicate its preferences “a-priori”, leaving to the central entity the task of understanding preferences that should be learnt without causing discomfort to the user. With this premise, this study aims at exploring a DSM program that learns the acceptance of realistic simulated users to shift in time of home appliances, such as washing machines and dishwashers, analysing the benefits that arise from their inclusion. To this end, the proposed Acceptance Learning Algorithm 2.0 (ALA 2.0) minimises costs in scenarios with different energy sources and with a certain level of acceptance to shift in time, optimally scheduling the appliances according to the boundaries found by the proposed algorithm. ALA 2.0 is able to understand preferences also when modelling a behaviour of the user which is influenced by external factors not directly observable and when users make very few requests, interacting with the user in a simple way. Experimental results highlight that it is possible to understand the acceptance to the shift in time of the simulated users without any prior knowledge and without causing too much discomfort, achieving a win-win situation. As an example, more than 90% of requests were accepted in December, which is chosen as a representative month.