Demand Side Management for Enhanced Integration of Photovoltaics into Grid

Demand side management could be a very effective way to shift electric consumption of households to the maximum production hours of photovoltaic (PV) systems. A field study on more than 100 households were performed to evaluate the share of electric consumption that could be easily shifted. Assuming a fixed time window for the PV production (namely 11:00 to 15:00) the share of consumption already in this window was found to be around 20 % while the flexible consumption outside of that window was ca. 5% (not including hot water heating). Information to households was found insufficient to push households to change behaviour and shift consumption demonstrates that information is not sufficient. However, financial incentive households were able to shift ca. 3% of their consumption, Hot water heating at mid-day (rather than during the night) is shown to be a very effective demand side management measure.