Assessing the impact of demand response programs on the reliability of the Ghanian distribution network

The balancing of supplied energy to energy demand is often very challenging due to unstable power supply and demand load. This challenge causes the level of performance of distribution networks to be lower than expected. Research has however, shown the role of demand response (DR) on the performance of power networks. This work investigates the influence of DR, in the presence of incorporated renewable energy, on technical loss reduction, reliability, environment, energy saved and incentives paid to consumers with the help of PSAT and AIMMS software. Results from simulation have shown that the introduction of renewable energy into a Ghanaian distribution network coupled with implementing the proposed DR improves total energy supply by 9.8% at a corresponding operation cost reduction of 72.79%. The GHG and technical loss reduced by 27.26% and 10.09% respectively. The total energy saving is about 105kWh and 5,394.86kWh, for domestic and commercial loading profiles, respectively. Incentives received by consumers range between 45.14% and 58.55% more than that enjoyed, without renewable energy, by domestic and commercial consumers. The utility benefit also increased by 76.96% and 67.31% for domestic and commercial loads than that without renewable energy. Network reliability improves with implementation of DR. However, the reliability of a grid-connected network is better with a diesel generator only than with the integration of renewable energy. The power distribution companies, therefore, need to consider the implementation of incentive-based demand response program.