Electrical Power and Energy Systems 67 (2015) 216221

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Electrical Power and Energy Systems

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijepes

Typication of load curves for DSM in Brazil for a smart grid

environment
Maria N.Q. Macedo , Joaquim J.M. Galo, Luiz A.L. Almeida, Antonio C.C. Lima
Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of Bahia, Federal Institute of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The deployment of a smart grid environment is a worldwide trend and generates of a large volume of
Received 7 September 2014 data. The load curve for each consumer in real time is an example of this. The challenge is the transfor-
Received in revised form 17 November 2014 mation of these data into useful information that may help to improve efciency in the management,
Accepted 26 November 2014
planning and operation of the power grid. The implementation of demand side management (DSM)
Available online 11 December 2014
requires an analysis of the data generated in a smart grid environment to determine which policies
are most appropriate for each type of consumer. Because of the large number of customers, the
Keywords:
application of these policies involves the selection of patterns for the load curve.
Smart grid
Demand side management
This study discusses the use of DSM in a smart grid environment in Brazil and presents the simulation
Load curve for creating load curve patterns using the k-means technique from the consumer data of a concessionaire
for the Brazilian electric system. The result obtained in this research is the creation of the load curve
patterns for selecting the policies of DSM.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
The increased complexity of electric power systems in recent
years has contributed signicantly to the search for greater
efciency in their management. This implies the need for a deeper
knowledge of the behaviour of the load for their networks and their
customers. The use of digital technology associated with telecom-
munications has provided major breakthroughs by providing
systems that can supply information to improve the management
of electrical systems [13].
A smart grid is based on the integrated use of information tech-
nology, automation, telecommunications and control of the power
grid, which involves smart metres, sensors and digital network
management devices that are bi-directional and allow the
implementation of strategies to control and optimize the electric
network with real-time data processing [4].
This convergence of technologies offers a volume of data with
high reliability, encompassing the values at the points of consump-
tion and scheduling the evaluations of voltage, current and power
losses. Thus, the power grid can be controlled with more autonomy
for the consumer units, and energy management can be imple-
mented in a more decentralised manner, requiring the development
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mnevesmacedo@uol.com.br (M.N.Q. Macedo).
of new methods of control and optimization for the operation of the
electric system [5].
In addition, these new devices may exhibit multiple features,
such as differentiated charging, dynamic pricing and direct control
load, enabling the use of techniques for demand side management
(DSM) to optimize the planning and management of the electrical
system [6,7]. The challenge is the transformation of data into
information that is relevant to the management of the electrical
system, in addition to resolving the issues of sustainability and
energy conservation.
Processing these data with the use of tools that include statisti-
cal methods or articial intelligence allows a greater insight into
the consumers habits of consumption, and it contributes to the
deployment of power management policies that are best suited
to each case, such as DSM programs.
This study discusses the use of DSM techniques in a smart grid
environment and presents the simulation for creating load curve
patterns that will be used to select which DSM techniques are best
suited to each consumer. Section Aspects of demand side
management in Brazil of the article presents the characteristics
and the policies associated with the DSM programs. Section Load
characterization in Brazil presents aspects of the characterization
of the load. Section Typication of the load curve in Brazil
presents techniques for creating the patterns of the load curve.
Section Simulation and results presents the simulation and
results, and Section Conclusion presents the conclusion.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2014.11.029
0142-0615/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M.N.Q. Macedo et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 67 (2015) 216221
Aspects of demand side management in Brazil
Currently, in Brazils electricity sector, the generation and trans-
mission systems of energy companies already have systems of auto-
mation, supervision and control that use digital technology to
monitor the processes in virtually all of the major centres. These sys-
tems offer several features such as supervision, remote control and
remote measurement using the system of control and data acquisi-
tion (SCADA) implemented in the centres of operation that indicate
the operating conditions of all systems automated in real time.
Demand side management (DSM) is a set of techniques and pol-
icies that can help to provide greater efciency in the planning and
operation of the power grid as well as resolve the issues of sustain-
ability and energy conservation. The problem is that the full
deployment of DSM for the totality of consumers requires the
availability of the load curve data and devices that can operate
bi-directionally in real time on the network for each consumer
individually.
In the case of the distribution system in Brazil (voltage less than
34.5 kV), the reality is very different. Because of its complexity and
the large number of consumers (approximately 66 million), the
automated deployment of these systems is just beginning, and its
operation is still performed conventionally. The power measure-
ments for billing are performed manually for approximately 95%
of the consumer units using the electromechanical metre reading,
which causes poor monitoring of the workloads [8].
One of the most important steps in the deployment of DSM is
the characterization of the load, which is the process that aims to
identify and analyse the behaviour of the consumer load and the
electrical system, enabling the calculation of costs for the use of
the distribution system [911].
The load behaviour analysis of a system must comply with the
following characteristics:
 The daily load curve (12:00 am tracking).
 Geographic location (urban, suburban, rural).
 Supply voltage (high, medium or low voltage).
 Purpose of the charging energy provided (residential, industrial,
commercial).
 Disturbance of the load on the system.
Knowledge of the load prole also provides for the growth of
demand in the existing system (lines and substations) and in the
new networks, improving the calculation of the sizing system
and improving the physical and nancial planning studies for the
expansion of the networks with greater precision.
The characterization of the load is intended to identify and ana-
lyse the behaviour of the consumer load and electric system to
identify the factors that contribute to their evolution for the pre-
diction of the demand growth in the existing system and the
new networks, enabling the optimization of system planning and
management from the selection of actions most appropriate for
each type of load.
The knowledge of the behaviour of the consumer load also pro-
vides the dealership with the development of studies and actions
on the tariff structure, energy conservation programs, sizing of
the electrical system, stock trading and market studies.
The techniques of the DSM program [1014] most used are
shown in Fig. 1.
Peak clipping is a program of load cutting, demand reduction in
time for a heavy load. Cutting or reducing the duration of the peak
can be reached by direct load control, by shutdown of consumer
equipment or by distributed generation.
Conservation strategic is a program for seasonal energy con-
sumption reduction mainly through efcient consumption and
217
combating energy waste. This program is quite comprehensive
and includes incentives for technological change.
Load building is a program to control the seasonal energy con-
sumption increase in building. The dealership employs intelligent
systems, processes, more efcient equipment and more competi-
tive energy sources to achieve energetic efciency.
Valley lling is a program which encourages the off peak
consumption. It builds non-peak consumption periods which is
particularly desirable as the cost of production is lower, which
causes a decrease in the average price and improves the efciency
of the system.
Load shifting is a program, with the workload transfer period of
greatest consumption (peak period to period of lower consump-
tion), move tip out loads, without changing the total consumption.
This is also possible with distributed generation.
Flexible load shape is a set of actions and integrated planning
between the concessionary and the consumer, subject to the
needs of the moment. It is a partnership in order to model
consumer loads, without affecting the actual conditions of security,
limiting the power and energy that the individual consumer can
use at certain times, through the installation of load limiting
devices.
All of these techniques are intended to equalize the demand and
avoid spikes in consumption for certain schedules that may con-
tribute to the anticipation of investments.
Because of the large number of customers, the application of
these techniques or DSM policies involves the selection of patterns
for the load curve. The selection of the number of standards
depends on the purpose of the concessionaire with respect to the
classication of the curves: whether it is for the calculation of tar-
iffs for the DSM policies or simply for the planning or operation of
the system. For any one of these objectives, typication is required
for selecting the most appropriate policies for each set of loads
with the same characteristics [15,16].
It is important to note that the monitoring of the consumer load
curves is an activity of great importance for the purposes of DSM
policies. However, the register consumer analysis and the
monitoring of feeders that provide electricity to consumers are also
required, as shown in Fig. 2 so that one can have a complete diag-
nosis of the system and provide more effective decisions regarding
the most appropriate policies to be implemented for each case.
This study normally works with typical curves, which repre-
sents a reduction in this universe of networks and clients to more
incidents and distinct behaviours.
It should be noted that in the denition of typical curves where
there are insufcient statistical calculations, user intervention is
needed and must consider the signicance of the types (very small
or very large participation in the market) if the type is parsed by
grouping different forms, especially for the differences or similari-
ties in the tip schedule.
The lack of knowledge of the prole of the load for each
consumer group makes it considerably more difcult to assess
the benets of energy conservation programs and the technical
calculation of the losses in the distribution system. Furthermore, in
the short term, the management of the demand for the consumers
and networks can mean large cost savings.
Load characterization in Brazil
Data acquisition is the rst step in a study of the characteriza-
tion of a charge. The quality of the data collected is a key point
because it will be the entire basis of the studies for planning.
Obtaining the data of all consumers in a region without the use
of digital technology makes it necessary to employ statistical
techniques based on the installation of metres in a small sample
218 M.N.Q. Macedo et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 67 (2015) 216221
(a) Peak Clipping
(c) Strategic Conservation
(e) Load Shifting
Fig. 1. Techniques of the DSM program.
The feeders
load curve
Consumer
registration data
Consumer
Load curve
Fig. 2. Proposed schema for the choice of DSM policies.
of the population in which the variables of interest will be ana-
lysed. Thus, the knowledge obtained is then transferred to the
entire population, which is modelled by that sample [1720].
Load curve data can be obtained in two ways: from the recovery
of measures when a digital metre is already installed or from the
measures campaign.
The recovery of the load curve measures is accompanied by
areas of metering and billing for the concessionaires. In this case,
the points of interest for the load studies already installed measur-
ing equipment on site, allowing the lifting of the load curve with
the values already stored previously [2126].
When the points of interest for the studies do not have equip-
ment that allow the lifting of the load curve, which is the case in
Brazil for the overwhelming majority of consumers (95%), it is
necessary to use a campaign of measures, which covers a set of
activities and procedures for collecting data for the load curves
in a given sample of consumers or for components of the electric
system. This measure typically occurs every 4 years for the
calculation of the tariffs for energy [8].
(b) Valley filling
(d) Strategic Load Growth
(f) Flexible Load Shape
Analysis Tools DSM policies
As these metres are placed to accompany the load curve of con-
sumers temporarily, an important issue that arises is the absence
of continuous monitoring of these loads in detail and in real time.
This prevents the performance of more immediate measures or the
most appropriate policies for each consumer prole to optimize
the system dynamically.
A smart grid environment offers consumers digital metres that
are already installed permanently, which must accompany the
12:00 am behaviour of the load in real time and from specic pro-
grams that can contribute to a detailed knowledge of the load and
can select the appropriate policies for each type of load.
After collecting and archiving data from the load curve, the next
step is to apply the data treatment. This treatment is comprised of
the set of inference in the database, identifying the characteristic
parameters of a given population and characterizing them in terms
of their types. The idea is to create the patterns or typify the load
curve, which may characterize the type of consumption. Addition-
ally, consumers apply and verify which consumers are closest to
the chosen standards.
 M.N.Q. Macedo et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 67 (2015) 216221
Analysing the load curve involves a large volume of data that
must be processed to have a base of knowledge regarding the var-
ious features of the system. Currently, information technology has
presented the efcacy of the acquisition and storage of informa-
tion, providing a large growth in the volumes of stored data and
making it difcult to extract knowledge without the help of tools
for the analysis of data from charts, tables or statistical methods.
The great challenge is to process the data and to extract and make
available the relevant information for decision-making.
The on-line analytic processing (OLAP) allows a multidimen-
sional analysis of the data and the use of techniques such as data
mining (data mining), which will be described in the next section
and consists of a knowledge extraction process based on the clas-
sication and grouping of data by applying algorithms, including
the use of articial intelligence tools [26,27].
The process of data classication is usually performed in stages,
as shown in Fig. 3:
 Data collection and selection of variables for analysis.
 Choice of classication algorithm.
 Creation of array: similarity matrix generation between the ele-
ments that are classied. Example: load curves.
 Creation of standard: choice of patterns to be used.
 Identication of classes: assignment of each object to a class.
Typication of the load curve in Brazil
Because of the large number of consumers for the electrical
system, current technology is unenforceable for the study of the
individual behaviour for each consumer. The strategy then is to
dene the market in the study for a suitable number of consump-
tion patterns that will represent the totality. The variables that will
dene these patterns are your load curves, which are called typical
curves.
In the studies that have as the objective the denition of the
behaviour for a given voltage level, it is necessary to determine
the consumer typology for this level.
In Brazil, these studies are usually performed for the calculation
of rates, and the method most used to dene this room type is a
method called dynamic clouds.
This method emphasizes the minimization of the internal vari-
ance for grouping, maximizing your distance in relation to other
groups.
The method of dynamic clouds presents the classication
around points called nuclei that belong to a given set of data. In
this process, the clusters are not characterized by a centre of
Data Choice of
collection Algorithm
Creation of
the array
Identification Creation of standards
of classes
Fig. 3. Steps for data classication.
219
gravity, but by a certain number of objects called patterns that con-
stitute a core. The problem with this method is the long processing
time.
The literature offers several methods for sorting data [2833].
In addition, the application of classic techniques for the group also
apply articial intelligence techniques and analyse mass consumer
data to typify patterns from the best possible typology of
consumers. A method that is used frequently in the classication
of load curves is the k-means algorithm, which was selected
because of its effectiveness, low processing time, simple program-
ming, and low memory requirement.
The k-means algorithm is based on the minimization of the
internal distance between the patterns of a group or cluster.
Minimizing the error warrants nding a local minimum of the
function, which will depend on the starting point of the algorithm.
The algorithm provides an automatic sorting without the need for
any human supervision, i.e., without any pre-sorting. Because of
this characteristic, the k-means clustering is considered as an algo-
rithm of unsupervised data mining.
The k-means algorithm groups data around centres termed
centroids, creating partitions with new classes. These partitions,
in turn, have new centres that cause at the discretion of the closer
new partitions. All of this occurs in a cycle that ends only when the
partitions cannot be improved, or until they reach a predetermined
level of precision. The centroids are at the heart of each class or
standard adopted, as shown in Fig. 4.
The determination of the gravity centres of the new classes can
be calculated from Eq. (1)
X
k X
E dx; lC i 1
i1 x2C i
where E is the error function, l (Ci) is the centroid of the cluster Ci
and d (x, l (Ci)) is the Euclidean distance between x and the centroid
l (Ci).
Main steps of the k-means algorithm:
Step 1. Adopt the partition of departure, taking into account the
available information or from elements of and drawn, around
which form its classes. Typically, each class starting partition
consists of a single object, chosen randomly or in a dened
order.
Step 2. Determine the gravity centres of their classes and the
inertia of the partition.
Step 3. Build a new partition crowding around each of the
elements of gravity centre and closer to the centre than the
other. If some of the elements of E are equidistant from various
Fig. 4. Centroids of clusters.
220 M.N.Q. Macedo et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 67 (2015) 216221

Type 0 Type 1
1,2 1,2

Normalized load

Normalized load
1 1
0,8 0,8
0,6 0,6
0,4 0,4
0,2 0,2
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Hours Hours

Type 2 Type 3
1,2 1,2
1 1,0
Normalized load

Normalized load
0,8 0,8

0,6 0,6
0,4 0,4

0,2 0,2

0 0,0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Hours Hours

Fig. 5. Proposed patterns of load curves.

centres of gravity, arbitrarily shall be charged to any of the clas-
ses that contain these centres.
Step 4. Determine the gravity centres of the new classes
X
k X
Ik jxj  lj j2
j1 xj 2C
Step 5. Compare the quality of your new partition, the previous
one with the current-keeping the best.
Step 6. If the process can be optimizing, restart the process in
step 3. Otherwise the partition obtained will be great on.
The problem with this method is its sensitivity in the selection
of the initial clusters that can converge to a local minimum. Thus,
variations of the k-means clustering occur with several strategies
for start-up with the goal of nding a global minimum.
Simulation and results
Dening the typology requires a data le load curve for a repre-
sentative sample of the relevant market and on the basis of this
process, the le analysis of these data.
The input data were supplied by the local dealership and were
obtained from the measures that occur every 4 years for the calcu-
lation of tariffs. The 96 measures were provided daily for 2000 con-
sumer measures of low voltage for a month and weekends.
These data have been processed, have analysed the average
curve for ve working days for each consumer and were
normalized to allow comparisons of only the curves, regardless
of the absolute values of consumption.
Based on the data obtained in the previous step, an array of
standardized data and the MATLAB software were used to simulate
the creation of the standard curves with different features using
the k-means method.
It was created and initially tested various patterns of the load
curves for low voltage. However, from the analysis of the patterns
created, the objective of the creation of these standards is to select
the most suitable policy of DSM for each type of consumption. It
was observed that four patterns of the load curve is sufcient to
dene which DSM techniques should be used (for peak
displacement control, load control, energy efciency or to encourage
distributed generation). Fig. 5 shows the four selected load curve
patterns.
Type 0 has a fairly constant consumption throughout the day
2
with a slightly elevated peak-hour consumption. Management
actions for this case can be based on energy efciency and conser-
vation policies.
Type 1 has two more pronounced peaks in consumption, which
implies the need for action to control the peak through tariff
incentives and direct control load or peak displacement, power
generation by the consumer, or accumulation negotiated with
the consumer through tariff incentives, depending on the
knowledge of the cadastral data of consumers.
Type 2 has a sharp consumption peak, implying the need for
policies to reduce the peak and ll the valleys for which direct con-
trol and/or distributed generation can be used.
Type 3 has peaks only during the night. This load type is char-
acteristic of LED streetlights. In this case, the actions may involve
the replacement of lamps with higher-efciency lamps.
The selection of the number of standards depends on the com-
panys objective with respect to the classication of curves, e.g., for
pricing policies for DSM or simply for the planning or operation of
the system.
In a smart grid environment, curves obtained using this method
can be employed as a standard for conducting an automatic classi-
cation of consumers in real time and for selecting which DSM pol-
icies are most appropriate for each consumer.
Conclusion
The deployment of a smart grid environment enables the gener-
ation of a large volume of data. The challenge is the transformation
of these data into useful information that may help to improve
efciency in the management, planning and operation of the power
grid as well in resolving the issues of sustainability and energy
conservation.
In this new environment, the implementation of DSM
techniques assumes an important role in the quest for efciency
 M.N.Q. Macedo et al. / Electrical Power and Energy Systems 67 (2015) 216221
in the electricity sector. The knowledge of the prole of consumers
from the real-time monitoring of load curves opens a window of
opportunities for new applications in Brazil, as shown in this
article.
The full deployment of DSM for the totality of consumers
requires the availability of the load curve data and devices that
can operate bi-directionally in real time on the network for each
consumer.
Creating load curve patterns for DSM can denitely contribute
to the DSM policies that are deployed appropriately to each con-
sumer after its classication.
The next work using the methodology proposed in this paper is
the use of articial intelligence techniques, such as articial neural
networks, to perform the automatic classication of load curves
using standard curves are described in this paper.
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