Electric load management approaches for peak load reduction: A systematic literature review and state of the art

•We present systematic literature review and a state of the art analysis for electric load management.•More than 200 papers have been classified.•Huge increase of interest in the topic in the last 5 years.•Small volume of research about large-scale systems.•Lack of common benchmarking frameworks.

This paper proposes a review of the scientific literature on electric load management (ELM). Relevant topics include the smart grid, demand-side management, demand-response methods, and peak load reduction. The evaluation is performed by a systematic literature review (SLR) and an evaluation of the recent advances in the state of the art. The analysis is based on the classification of 200+ papers, considering the covered topics/problems, assumptions, constraints, and the proposed methods. Statistical results show a growing interest in ELM in the last few years, and a fast obsolescence of older results. A lack of common benchmarking frameworks has been detected.