Abstract
High peak demand is often a challenge to the grid and could result into measures such as
procurement of additional plants to meet the peak demand, higher tariffs for consumers, undesirable
load shedding or even black-outs. However, these issues can be mitigated by introducing Demand Side
Management (DSM) techniques for effective energy management of consumers’ peak demand. In this
paper, an enhanced Device Operation Knowledge - Electricity Usage Plan (DOK-EUP) is proposed,
which applies time independencies of selected smart home appliances for peak demand reduction based
on their operation principles and for consumer’s benefit. The proposed DOK-EUP technique was tested
with the surveyed demand profile of a Time-of-Use (TOU) consumer and results showed lower
morning and evening peak demands, lower peak-to-peak difference, shift in peak period to traditional
off-peak periods, financial savings for the consumers and utility provider, and a cleaner environment.