Community-scale Energy Demand Reduction in India (CEDRI)

Summary

Capturing the rate of change in the Indian building stock, and associated energy demand, is a considerable undertaking. The “refresh” rate of the housing stock is high (with new build constituting a much higher percentage of the housing stock than many developed countries) and, simultaneously, the approach to delivering electricity to those homes is changing (e.g. the growth in distributed renewable generation, such as solar photovoltaics). If further change is to be planned amongst this already uncertain landscape, in the form of community-wide energy demand reduction strategies, then a full impact of such measures must be understood. Minimising cooling requirements, controlling/managing appliance loads and encouraging distributed generation should all be promoted in a way that i) is consistent and complementary to a functioning local electricity network and ii) relate to measures that are likely to be accepted across communities, rather than having only niche appeal.

The CEDRI project will allow for community electricity demand modelling through applied aggregation algorithms, converting small samples of individual building demand profiles into community-level profiles. After carrying out surveys and workshops with householders, the project will identify the demand-reducing measures likely to succeed in such regions (informed by real case-study communities and empirical data) and apply these to the community demand models to quantify potential impact. The ability of such changes to improve the local energy network will be fully investigated, such that measures deemed to successfully reduce total energy demand can be managed in a way that improves key characteristics of that network (such as frequency, voltage and peak demand). The project will therefore provide guidance that will ensure that approaches to demand reduction “co-evolve” with changes in the methods used to supply electricity to residential communities, over future timescales that already have considerable levels of uncertainty.

Key objectives

1. Define grid characteristics of local networks at regional level in chosen case-studies and contextual data
2. Collate individual and local network (transformer) electricity demand data for chosen regions
3. Aggregate demand profiles of regions with future scenario-morphing techniques
4. Provide tailored, qualified demand-side options for Indian households informed by survey responses
5. Detailed guidance for required response to future demand pathways for Indian communities