Individual electricity customers that are connected to low voltage network in Poland are usually assigned to the most common G11 tariff group with flat prices for the whole year, no matter the usage volume. Given the diversity of customers’ behavior inside the same specific group, we aim to propose an approach to assign the customers based on some objective factors rather than subjective fixed assignment. With the smart metering data and statistical methods for clustering we can explore and recommend each customer the most suitable tariff to benefit from lower prices thus generate the savings. Further, the paper applies hierarchical, k-means and Kohonen approaches to assign the customers to the proper tariff, assuming that the customer can gain the biggest expenses reduction from the tariff switch. The analysis was conducted based on the Polish dataset with an hourly energy readings among 197 entities.

At present, papers concerning energy consumption and forecasting are predominantly dedicated to various known techniques and their combinations. On the other hand, the research on load modeling and forecasting methodologies is quite limited. This paper presents a new approach concerning hourly energy consumption using a multivariate linear regression model. The proposed technique provides a way to accurately model day-to-day energy consumption using just a few selected variables. The number of data points required to describe a whole day’s consumption depends on the demanded precision, which is up to the user. This model is self-configurable and very fast. The applied model shows that four hours are sufficient to describe energy consumption during the remainder of a given day. We show that for about 84% of the data points, the relative error of the model is below 2.5%, and for all the data points the error does not exceed 7.5%. We obtained a mean relative uncertainty of 1.72% in the learning data set, and 1.69% and 1.82% in the two testing data sets, respectively. In addition, we conclude that the model can also detect days with unusual energy consumption.

The electricity tariffs available to customers in Poland depend on the connection voltage level and contracted capacity, which reflect the customer demand profile. Therefore, before connecting to the power grid, each consumer declares the demand for maximum power. This amount, referred to as the contracted capacity, is used by the electricity provider to assign the proper connection type to the power grid, including the size of the security breaker. Maximum power is also the basis for calculating fixed charges for electricity consumption, which is controlled and metered through peak meters. If the peak demand exceeds the contracted capacity, a penalty charge is applied to the exceeded amount, which is up to ten times the basic rate. In this article, we present several solutions for entrepreneurs based on the implementation of two-stage and deep learning approaches to predict maximal load values and the moments of exceeding the contracted capacity in the short term, i.e., up to one month ahead. The forecast is further used to optimize the capacity volume to be contracted in the following month to minimize network charge for exceeding the contracted level. As confirmed experimentally with two datasets, the application of a multiple output forecast artificial neural network model and a genetic algorithm (two-stage approach) for load optimization delivers significant benefits to customers. As an alternative, the same benefit is delivered with a deep learning architecture (hybrid approach) to predict the maximal capacity demands and, simultaneously, to determine the optimal capacity contract.