Demand Side Management for the European Supergrid: Occupancy variances of European single-person households

The prospect of a European Supergrid calls for research on aggregate electricity peak demand and Europe-wide Demand Side Management. No attempt has been made as yet to represent a time-related demand curve of residential electricity consumption at the European level. This article assesses how active occupancy levels of single-person households vary in single-person household in 15 European countries. It makes use of occupancy time-series data from the Harmonised European Time Use Survey database to build European occupancy curves; identify peak occupancy periods; construct time-related electricity demand curves for TV and video watching activities and assess occupancy variances of single-person households.

► Morning peak occupancies of European single households tale place between 7h30 and 7h40.
► Evening peaks take place between 20h10 and 20h20.
► TV and video activities during evening peaks make up about 3.1 GWh of European peak electricity load.
► Baseline and peak occupancy variances vary across countries.
► Baseline and peak occupancy variances can be used as input for Demand Side Management choices.