Simulation-based assessment of aggregated residential energy demand reduction strategies for cooling in a South Indian community

According to India Energy Security Scenario 2047, residential air conditioners (A/Cs) will increase from 21.8 million in 2017 —about 8% of the Indian households—to approximately 154.4 million in 2037. As a result, according to Indian Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), the associated electricity consumption is likely to quadruple in the next two decades. Therefore, the study of demand reduction or management strategies for cooling is essential to reduce and manage the projected significant electricity demand. The strategies might influence formulating and implementing climate-specific cooling policies at the state and country level, and to adopt new low-energy and low-cost cooling technologies at mass-market scale. Under the high electricity demand for cooling projections of India, the objective of this study is to investigate the increase in A/C use on the aggregated consumption as well as to assess the performance of residential cooling demand management strategy (load shifting) on the reduction of peak electricity demand load of part of a community (Auroville) in Southern India. The analysis showed that the elevated ownership of A/C might increase average daily electricity demand ~6.6 times than that of the base case scenario of using all-electric fans for attaining thermal comfort. The mixed-mode uses of A/Cs and fans created a demand management opportunity through load shifting which demonstrated ~46% reduction (for 15 min shift of 50% household A/C use) potential for aggregated electricity peak loads.