A domestic demand model for India

This paper describes the extension of CREST’s popular and open-source domestic energy demand model for UK households into one that can also model households in India. The model is based on a representation of individual appliances and their usage, dependent on ‘active occupancy’, meaning the times that people are both at home and awake. The model is well suited to the analysis of low-voltage networks and micro-grids, for which its ability to account for demand diversity is of critical importance. Energy consumption in households in India is quite different from that in the UK. Several functional extensions are required in order to represent features that are significant in India. The per-household ownership of appliances and lighting fixtures is currently much lower in India than in the UK. The model represents both urban and rural locations, and the expected increase in appliance ownership in India. In India, the model shows that domestic demand profile is currently more heavily dominated by an evening peak of demand.