Domestic electricity load modelling by multiple Gaussian functions

•National and regional domestic load profile modelling.•Analysis domestic load profile base on number of person and bedroom.•Multiple Gaussian functions modelling method for domestic load profile.•Load profiles can be applied to distributed generation planning and renewable energy system design.

Domestic electricity load profile is essential for energy planning and renewable energy system design. This paper presents analysis of domestic electric load characteristics and a method to model domestic and regional load profile. Multiple Gaussian functions are used to express the load characteristics in the proposed model. This is done by associating the Gaussian function parameters with the peak load changes, e.g. changing height parameters to reflect the peak magnitude. The result of the load curve represented with multiple Gaussian functions allows the model to generate a regional load profile using the number of homes, the number of bedrooms (Nr) and the number of occupants (Np). The proposed model simulates domestic load profile by its load demand change characteristics instead of its appliance ownership and use pattern, etc. Data requirement for the proposed method is significantly lower than the previous top-down and bottom-up approaches. Seasonal change is not included in the present paper, but the method is capable of including seasonal changes if each season’s load demand changes in relation to Np and Nr is available. A demonstration of modelling England and Wales’s national hourly load profile in 2001 and 2011 is presented in this paper. Comparison is made of the proposed method with two other published domestic load profile models. Results show that the proposed method improves the mean percentage errors by at least 5.7% on average hourly load profile.