Smooth Scheduling for Electricity Distribution in the Smart Grid

The emergence of smart grid (SG) brings about many fundamental changes in electric power systems. In this paper, we study the problem of smooth electric power scheduling in power distribution networks. We introduce an electricity supply/demand model that takes into account the time-varying demands and their deadlines. We formulate a constrained nonlinear programming problem and incorporate the theory of majorization to develop algorithms that can compute smoothness optimal schedules for the deferrable load dominant system. An effective heuristic algorithm is also presented by extending the majorization-based algorithm for the general scenario with both priority loads and deferrable loads. After obtaining the smooth power schedule, a distributed user benefit maximization load control scheme is used to allocate the scheduled power to individual users, while maximizing their levels of satisfaction. The analysis and simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms on smooth electric power scheduling, peak power minimization, and reducing power generation cost.