5th International Conference on Electricity Distribution

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Paper CP0467

STUDY ON THE BEHAVIORS OF ELECTRIC POWER CONSUMERS

IN SMART GRID ENVIRONMENT

JingChao ZHANG, ZhengGang WANG, YuanLi NIU, NingXi SONG, ZhuoYa CHEN, XiaoLei LI
Henan Electric Power Corporation-China
zepczjc@163.com
important factors in the development of smart grid.
ABSTRACT

As one of the stirring direction of research and

development in power grid, the construction of smart grid
is thought to be a revolution of electric power industry.
And two-way interactive communication between the grid
and power consumers will be an important part of the
power consumption business in the future. As we know,
different consumption behaviors of power consumers will
bring different influences both on the safe operation of
power grid and the economic of consumers. In this paper,
the behavior characteristics of different power users of
smart grid environment is full taking into account, and
the types of energy saving, interactive service guiding,
and new service requiring classification method is
proposed based on the theory of consumer's behavior and
customer marketing. Point to different development
potentials of power consumers in smart service fields
presently, the preferential development of energy-saving
services to the industrial users is put forward. Meanwhile,
the commercial operation model research on the
intelligent power consumption filed should be developed
as soon as possible. Finally, an energy serving case
proposed in the paper proved the feasibility and
correctness of the findings.
Key words: smart grid, behaviors of electric power
consumers, classification, commercial operation model

I. INTRODUCTION
For the reasons of solving the problem of energy security,
Addressing Climate Change, and seizing the new
opportunity of industrial uprising, countries in the world
to vigorously develop the smart grid and have smart
electricity as the core substance of the smart grid
development[l]. Though China research smart grid a little
later than United States, but has made great achievements
such as in smart power technology, the standardization,
the pilot construction and commercial operation[2-11].
The goal of power grid enterprises is to meet the
differences in different types of users of the electricity
services. On the one hand, power grid enterprises guide to
change the behavior of electric power consumers by the
excitation mechanisms, technology platforms, and smart
electricity services, on the other hand, the service
satisfaction and two-way interactive participation of
electric power consumers are also increasingly becoming

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II.

CONSUMER

BEHAVIOR

AND

KEY

ACCOUNT THEORY

Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, and

where people do or do not buy a product. It blends
elements
from
psychology,
sociology,
social
anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand
the buyer decision making process, both individually and
in groups. The research methods of it include: observation,
experiment, questionnaires, conversation and, modeling.
Key Accounts, or as key customers, who are thought to
be very important customers, can increase the profit of
enterprise and have been paid special attention. For
power supply companies, the key accounts usually refer
to those companies which consume large electricity or
have some special users. Key accounts can be divided
into economic customers, key customers, potential clients,
etc.
Based on the consumer behavior and key account
marketing theory, using observation, conversation,
questionnaire, and research on a variety of different users
of smart electricity demand, the classification methods of
different power uses in smart grid environment is
proposed in the paper, and which is used to research
various factors affecting the behavior of electric power
consumers.
III. THE CLASSIFICATION OF ELECTRIC
POWER CONSUMERS

The correct classification is the first step to research

user's behavior. Nowadays, power supply enterprises
usually classify electric power consumers in accordance
with the sales channel, power consumption, reliability
requirements and electricity prices. For example,
.
accordmg to the different electricity prices, electric power
users can be classified as five categories, such as large
industrial enterprises, common industrial and commercial
enterprises and other companies (containing non
industrial, non-commercial, non-residents companies), the
agricultural production consumers, residents' living and
wholesale county consumers, is shown as Tablel.

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Paper CP0467

Table 1 Conventional user classification in accordance with the electricity price

Illustrations
Category
Large Industrial Price
Applies in all industrial users who engage in electric smelting, baking,
welding, electrolysis, electro-chemical and its transformer capacity is in
the above 315kva. And also applies in all fields of waterworks, industrial
tests, plate making industry, mercury lamp and electric railway.
and Applies to non-resident lighting, commercial and general non-industry.
General
Industrial
Commercial Price
Applies to rural towns, state farms, pastures, power irrigation stations,
Agricultural Price
agriculture base, electric plows, drilling wells, threshing, manure,
seeding production, backlighting insect trapping.
Residential Price
Applies to lighting and household appliances in residential area and
family member courtyard, containing the stairwell lighting and parking
shed lighting. Applies to teaching and student living power in public and
private school.
Bulk Sale Price
According power supply affiliation, bulk sale price execute to the
country level with 20%-30% discount approved by power managing
department of province, municipality, autonomous regions.
In the smart grid environment, power supply enterprises
will guide electric power consumers participate in two
way interactive activities and meet their new diversiform
requirements through a range of smart electricity services.
In the meantime, the user-differentiated electricity
demand is an important internal factor which results in
their electricity behavioral changes and should be study
seriously. Based on the investigation of various users,
new demand-led classification method of smart power
users is proposed as follows:
A.

energy saving demand-led user

Typically, this sort of electric power consumers has huge

amounts of electricity consumption, and the power
expenditure occupies an important proportion of the
production costs. This sort of consumers requires high
reliability on power supply and power quality, and they
are faced with energy saving and emission reduction
pressure. Such users mainly covers the high energy
consumption enterprises, industrial parks, etc., involved
in the iron and steel, nonferrous metals, chemicals,
cement and other high energy-consuming enterprises, and
information, logistics and other modern industrial
enterprises. To guide such users' behavior, the provided
services should focus on smart electricity to meet their
need of energy conservation, demand side management.
This sort of users can be provided with the use of energy
services, energy efficiency management, smart electricity
service management, intelligent park, etc.
B.

Interactive and information demand-led user

Residents and commercial users is the main body of such

users. They are the mainly colony of using smart pay,
smart buildings, smart home, as well as multi-network
convergence. With the enhancement of public awareness,
and the pricing mechanism gradually reform, such users
will be more and more interested in the demand side

Paper No CP0467

management and family energy management. Therefore,

to guide their behavior of electricity, power grid
enterprises should encourage such users to participate in
two-way interactive services, and provide them with
personalized, differentiated services.
C.

Diversification of new electricity demand-led

user

Compared to the traditional grid electricity users, This

sort of user is newly added and they embody new
business service requirements in smart grid environment.
The provided services including electric vehicle charging
and discharging, distributed power, micro-grid access and
operation services.
IV. USER BEHAVIORS OF ELECTRICITY IN
SMART GRID ENVIRONMENT

A.

demand analysis on smart power consumer

Different smart power consumers have different demand

of smart electricity services. Energy saving demand-led
user has a urgent requirement to improve their energy
utilization and tap their energy-saving potentials.
Interactive and information demand-led user have
realized the convenience of information and interactive
services, but tariffs and other incentive mechanisms are
still key factors in determining their actions presently. In
the near future, electric vehicle charging and discharging,
distributed power, micro-grid access and operation
services will increase sharply and meet the diversity
needs of new electricity demand-led user.
B.

the effects of smart power on user behaviour

With the development of smart electricity business, user

behavior will be undergoing profound changes. Demand
side management allows the user to choose their

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electricity consuming mode and take part in the power

grid secure and economic operation actively and their
identity will be changed from passive consumers to active
participants. Distributed generation allows the user to
change from simple electricity consumer to both
consumption and sale of electricity. Power fibre to the
home(PTTH) will provide richer information experiences
to users and users will change their consuming mode
from dispersed using resources to the comprehensive
utilization of integrated, sharing, and information services;
intelligent home furnishing will change the lifestyle of
users and enhance the quality of life. Electric vehicle
charging service will bring more convenient and low
carbon travel life. Driven by economic interests, the
willingness of enterprises to develop energy-saving will
be significantly enhanced, and energy management
contract-based energy efficiency services will gradually
replace the enterprise's own energy-saving input mode.
C.

other factors influencing on user behaviour

Electricity price, environmental protection pressure and

taxation policy are of great importance to user
participating in the two-way interaction with power grid.
At the same time, Industrial development, the level of
local economic and information development affect the
behavior of users to a certain extent. In terms of
implementation, to participate in the interactive services,
to change electricity consumption habits, the user must be
given appropriate economic incentives. Only this way can
sustainable develop the mode. Judging from the current
situation of demand side management pilot projects
carried out, when peak-valley and TOU electricity prices
spread widened to a certain extent, and the user can
perceive the incentives, they will spontaneous to
participate in the interaction with power grid, load
shifting benefits will be fairly obvious. In the meantime,
interactive experiences of smart electricity should be
often hold to gradually reverse user's concept of original
extensive electricity consumption.
D. Smart electricity strategies

Smart electricity services mode has been formed.

According to the technology development and user
behavior characteristics, at present, we should continue to
promote the construction of the user information
collection system, and active develop the Smart Park pilot,
build electric vehicle charging and recharging facilities in
terms of the local economic level, carry out the
construction of PFTTH orderly, guide distributed power
sources connect to grid and micro-grid construction
healthily, cooperate with the government come on
electricity policy Actively, to improve the users behavior
electricity consumption. Point to different development
potentials of power consumers in smart service fields
presently, the preferential development of energy-saving
services and energy efficiency management to the
industrial users is appropriate.

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Shanghai, 5-6 Sept 2012

Paper CP0467

V.CASE STUDIES

A.

characteristics and demands

The enterprise in case is of lead smelting and silver

production company. In 2008 ,
the enterprise's
maximum electricity load is up to 150MW, annual
electricity consumption is 1.01 billion kWh, Electricity
costs account for more than 10 percent of production
costs. It is a typical of high energy consumption
enterprises, and has higher power supply reliability and
power quality requirements, and has a strong demand for
saving energy, improving energy efficiency, and reducing
production costs.
B.

Rectification measures

Through Reducing unnecessary power consumption and

improving the energy utilization efficiency, this company
has developed mainly in the energy consumption of
electrical equipment monitoring, energy efficiency
analysis of electricity policy analysis, monitoring and
early warning of power quality, energy anomaly detection
and alarm in energy management and so on. The diagram
of energy using monitor system is as shown in Figure1.
.-

------+-

t=

--------

----

Figure I the diagram of energy using monitor system

C.

Rectification effect

Through the construction of energy-saving services and

energy efficiency management, the company effectively
improve the energy efficiency and significantly reduce
the proportion of productive electricity consumption by
5%, or 50 million kWh, according to the electricity price
of 0.6 Yuan / kWh; the annual savings reaches 30 million
Yuan.
VI. CONCLUSIONS

According to the research in province, the energy

utilization efficiency in China has a larger gap compare
with the developed countries. As for high energy
consumption enterprise, the requirement of carrying out
energy
efficiency
management
becomes
strong
increasingly. to carry out energy-saving services to
improve the energy efficiency has s a great market
potential, but how to get users' recognition of energy
saving service, promote energy efficiency management

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actively will be the focus work in the future.

In smart grid environment, the power flow, information
and business will be changed from a single flow to bi
directional mode, and the traditional power users will
become important participants in smart grid construction.
Building a smart electric service system and business
model must based on the actual requirement, consider
internal and external factors influence on user behavior,
actively guide the user to carry out friendly interaction
with the grid, to fully tap and externalize the economic
and social benefits.
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impact of AMI on the future power system",

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