Impact of adopting the time-of-use rate plans on the electricity cost in the Canadian residential sector

Time of use (TOU) electricity metering involves dividing the day, the month and the year in to slots or bands, with generally higher rates at the peak loads and low tariff rates at off-peak load periods. For this study, the statistically representative testcase Canadian house was modeled in the building energy simulation software ESP-r to estimate its sub-hourly (every fifteen minutes) electricity consumption for the appliances, lighting, domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating for an entire year. With the detailed electricity usage magnitude and sub-hourly electricity demand profile, the cost was calculated at both flat and TOU price plans for a typical weekday and weekend for the winter and non-winter seasons, respectively. Different scenarios of demand response were simulated by individually shifting the ‘appliance and lighting’ loads and the ‘total electricity’ load (including HVAC and DHW) to the off-peak hours for the typical days of both seasons. It was found that by intelligent load management, up to 28 % of electricity cost savings are possible in a typical weekday. Similarly, by shifting only appliance load to off-peak hours up to 6.3 % in daily electricity cost can be saved.