1746

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 12, No. 4, November 1997

lisation of Load Survey Systems to Pro

c.s.Chen

J.C.Hwang

Department of Electrical Engineering

National Taiwan Institute of Technology
Taipei, Taiwan. R.0.C

Department of Electrical Engineering

National Kaohsiung Institute of Technology
Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.0.C

Abstract-This paper proposes a proper rate making strategy for

a public own utility by taking into account the customer load
characteristics. The load survey system has been well designed
by sampling theory to find the customers for power
consumption information collection. By this manner, the typical
load patterns derived can effectively represent the load behavior
of each customer class. The load patterns of each test customer
during different seasons are solved by statistic analysis
according to the load information collected. The seasonal
typical load pattern of each customer class is then determined
by integrating the load patterns of the same type customers. The
power consumption of the customer class is then estimated by
the typical class load pattern and the energy consuinption of all
customers in the same class, which can be retrieved from the
customer information database. The typical load pattern of
whole power system is then determined by aggregating the
power consuinption of all customer classes. The estimated
system load consumption is then compared to the actual system
load profile, it is found that rather accurate system load profile
can be predicted by the load survey system.
To design a proper tariff structure for the utility by
considering the power consumption profiles of all customer
classes, the cost of delivering the power to the customers during
different periods is calculated based on the actual cost of
generation, transmission and distribution systems. The
electricity service cost of each customer class during peak,
shoulder and off peak periods is calculated, according to the
contribution o f each customer class to the whole system load
profile. It is believed that the utility tariff rate structure derived
by the proposed method will reflect the actual power cost of the
utility to serve various types of customers in a more impartial
way.

PE-672-PWRS-0-01-1997 A paper recommended and approved

by the IEEE Power System Engineering Committee of the IEEE
Power Engineering Society for publication in the IEEE Transactions
on Power System Manuscript submitted October 21, 1996, made
available for printing January 16, 1997

C .W.Wuang
Power Research Institute
Taiwan Power Company
Taipei, Taiwan

1. Introduction
There has been a rapid increase in demand for electricity in the
last few years in Taiwan due to prosperous economic
development. However, as demand for environmental
protection is becoming stricker and land acquisition becomes
more difficult, it is also harder to build new power plants to
meet the rising demand. Therefore, it has been an important
issue for Taipower to investigate the customer load
characteristics to find more effective load management
alternatives to reduce the system peak demand[ 11.
Furthermore ,with the deregulation of domestic power industry,
more and more independent power producers will join the
power market. To face the challenge, it is necessary for
Taipower to develop better marketing strategies based on the
customer power consumption patterns to promote electricity
business.
The power consumption profiles of various customer
types can be integrated to find the system peak loading. With
the prediction of load growth rate for each customer type, more
accurate load forecast can be obtained and better system
expansion planning can be made to achieve good service quality.
With the usage of more and more air conditioners, the system
peak loading during summer season is increased so significantly
that the system spinning reserve capacity is much less than that
required for system operation criterion. Incentive and time of
use (TQU) rate have to be considered to provide sufficient rate
of return for the energy storage investment of customers. Most
of all, the power generation, transinission and distribution cost
should be identified based on the actual capacity cost and
energy cost during different time periods. The rate tariff
structure can therefore be designed according to the
contribution of power consumption of different customer
classes to the whole system load profile. By this method, the
system marginal capacity cost and energy cost can be properly
allocated among all customers for the TOU rate structure.
Based on the above discussion, the typical load profiles of
customer classes derived by the load survey system do provide
very precious information to support multiple functions of
electric utilities for system planning and operation[2,3,4]. In
this paperi an effective process Of load survey system is
described and derivation of customer typical load Patterns i s
performed To demonstrate the application of load survey

088.5-8950/97/$10.00 0 1997 IEEE

system, the proper rate tariff structure is designed based on the

customer load patterns derived. The overall process is
illustrated as Fig. i

1747

applied to find the customers to be selected for field power

measurement. For the stratified random sampling, the variance
can be expressed as

Define Customer Classes

and Confidence Level

where V ( % ) : the variance of the mean value of population.

N : customer number of total population
Nh : customer number of the h layer population
nh : customer number of the h layer sample size
s h : power consumption variance of the h layer
population

Stratification Random
Sampling of Customers
for Meter Installation
Power Consumption
Measurement and
Collection of Test
Customers

sh

nh

the load survey accuracy can be significantly enhanced by

increasing the sampling size for the stratification layer with
larger variance and reducing the sampling size for the
stratification layer with smaller variance as Eq.(2)

1
Bad Data Detection &
Load Pakern Derivation

nl
n2 -=---.-...=-=...=-

NISI

1
Derive the Composite
Power Consumption
Profile of Each Customer
Class
Determine the Hourly
Contribution of Total
System Power Demand

Since the variance is affected by the magnitude of - ,

N2S2

nh
NhSh

nh

znhsh

------------------- ( 2 )

therefore the proper sampling size of layer h is

Identify System Generation

Cost (Capacity Cost and
Energy Cost

where y2 is the total customers to be selected.

The mean value of Neyinun random sampling population is
expressed as

& Distribution Cost

I

I Design Proper Tariff Rate Structure 1

N~

Fig 1

The Overall Process of Load Survey and Rate Design

2.Samsle Design of Field Power Measurement

To determine the load characteristics of each customer

class, it is supposed to be the most accurate by measuring the
power consumption of all customers within the class. However,
it is often too expensive and impractical to collect and analyze
the load data for the entire population. Load survey system is to
identify the load characteristics of a group customers by
sampling proper size of customers for field measurement. It is
an important issue from the accuracy viewpoint of load survey
to determine the sampling size of customers to be metered so
that the load consumption pattern for each specific customer
type can be assessed in a certain confidential leve1[5,6,7].
Because each customer class shows unique load characteristics
and even the customers within same customer class may also
have different load level due to different production scale.
Therefore, the Neymum stratification sampling method[7] is

- 1

NhSh2

N2
The mean value of all the study population can therefore be
expressed
as Eq.(6)
- x = ,yN,,y f z o -x 4),,
(6)
n

____-________^_________________________

: the estimation of the mean value of total population

Z : confidential level.
02 11 J : the variance of the mean value of sample size.
The total sampling size of customers for meter installation to
ensure the load survey accuracy is

where

where

By retrieving the billing data from the customer

information system (CIS), the standard deviation of customer

1748

power consumption within each stratification layer can be

solved to find the proper customer sampling size.
3. Customer Samplinv o f Taipower Svstem

According to the Taipower rate tariff structure, the

following nine main layers are illustrated as shown in Table 1.
Table 1

Sample and population size of customer layers in

commercial (I - $ , 11OV)
3 low voltage composite commercia@ @ ,220V)
4 low voltage compositenon commercial
(3 a. 220Vl

95
31

69613
3274

iI 1-I
l l

II II

1072
15964

low voltage industrial(3 @, 22OV)

6 high voltage coniposite coiimiercial
13 d . 11KV)
high voltage compositenon commercial
(3 ~5.11KV)
8 high voltage industrial(3 @, 11KV)
9 extra high voltage industrial
(3 Cp, 69KV or 161KV)
5

42
39

II

customers within this customer class are retrieved from the CIS
data base. The actual power consumption of each customer
class is then solved. Fig. 2 shows the power consumption
profile of high voltage industrial customer class during summer
season served by Taipower Kaohsiung district office. The
power consumption profile of this customer class is varied
significantly with the production process. To achieve better
quality of load survey system, the typical load pattern has to be
further developed for each customer category respectively.
From this figure, there are two peak loading occurred which is
consistent to the Taipower system profile, which implies the
potential for load management to reduce the summer peak for
this customer class. The base load is larger than half of the peak
loading and it is mainly constituted by the three shift or
continuous production process

16000 -

12000

I I
43
44
40

18j
756

KW

I
-

I
8

i'

40
4000

Oi

1
_

"

1 7

- 1

12

18

HOUR

F1g.2 Power consumption profile o f high voltage customer class

Fig.3 shows the power consumption profiles of residential

customers. It is found that more power is consumed during
nighttime by residential customers when people stay home and
less power is consumed during daytime when people leave
home for work. According to the load survey, more than 60% of
the power consumption of residential customers is contributed
by the usage of air conditioners during summer season.

4. Derivation of Customer Load Patterns

After sampling the customers for field survey, 500 pieces

of PSI QUAD4 intelligent meters[8] are installed to collect the

power consumption of test customers. The meters are

programmed to record the customer real and reactive power
consumption within every 15 minutes over 2 years period. The
typical load pattern of each customer for different seasons are
derived by the statistic analysis with 95% confidence level[9].
After deriving the typical load patterns for each main
customer class, the monthly billing information for all the

Fig.3 Power Consumption profile of residential customer class

1749
Fig. 4 shows the typical load pattern of EHV customers
during summer season. Most of the customers are steel
manufacturers, chemical industries, oil refineries, machine
manufacturers and fabric textile producers, which are capital
intensive with continuous production process. Because very
large power is consumed and electricity cost often contributes
significant percentage of total production cost, effective load
management strategies have been implemented by this customer
class. According to the Taipower TOU tariff ,the per unit
electricity charge during nighttime period is only one fifth of
the daytime peak period, arc furnace is operated only during the
nighttime period of summer season to reduce the peak loading
for steel manufacturers. For the chemical related industries, the
daily power demand remains constant because of the continuous
production process. Therefore, the power consumption profile
of this customer class is rather constant with little more power
consumed during the off peak period.

the low system load level, while they contribute 55% of total
system loading during the daytime system peak. The residential
customers contribute the second largest portion of the total
system demand and they consume 11% to 15% of system load
during different time period.

MW

customer layer

1200 r

loo0

HOUR

Fig.5 The load composition of Taipower system in Kaohsiung

service area

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Fig.4 Power consumption profile of EHV customer class

5. Estimation of System Load Profiles bv Customer Load

Patterns
After deriving the typical load pattern of each customers
class and retrieving the monthly power consumption of all
customers within the class, the total power consumption profile
of each customer class can be solved. By integrating the power
consumption profiles of all the customer classes, the whole
system power profile is then derived. Fig.5 shows the estimated
load composition of Taipower system in Kaohsiung service area.
It is found that EHV customer class contributes more than half
of the total system power demand with only 40 customers.
Although the power consumption of each residential
customer is very small, the total power consumption of
residential customer class is rather significant because of so
many customers involved. Table 2 shows the hourly percentage
contribution of power consumption by each customer class
during summer season. The EHV customers consume up to
65% of the total system load during early morning because of

17
18
19
20
21
22
23

24

6.9 I 3.9 1
I 5.5 I 2.8 I

I 8.0 I 4.3 1

7.4
5.5
6.0
6.8
7.0

5.3 I 5.4

3.7
3.6
4.1
2.9
4.6

1.4
1.6
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.7
1.4
1.3

I 3.9
I 4.2

I 4.9

3.9
5.0

5.7
5.7
4.3

14.2 11.6 13.3 12.0 161.0

12.1 11.5 13.41 13.0 63.7
16.91 1.41 3.41 12.8 54.7
7.1 1.4 3.4 12.9 56.4
5.9 1.4 3.6 13.5 57.7
7.9 1.4 3.6 13.0 54.4
16.8 11.5 13.7 13.7 155.1
14.3 11.7 14.4 14.6 156.7

I 0.8 I 4.2 15.0 13.5 14.7 1 15.7 I 54.5

I 4.2 I 5.8 I 1.1 I 4.5 14.4 13.5 14.6I 15.2 155.8

I

I
I

5.6
5.3
5.4
6.6
6.9
3.7
5.8

I
I

5.2
5.7
8.0
4.7
5.1
3.1
3.0

I
I

1.3
1.1
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.5
1.5

I
I

4.1
3.5
3.9
3.2
2.9
4.5
3.9

4.7 3.5 4.2 14.9 55.7

4.5 2.9 3.5 13.1 58.3
4.3 2.7 3.5 13.4 55.2
4.5 2.6 3.5 13.7 57.6
15.6 12.1 13.2 I 12.7 158.0
14.3 11.91 3.4 12.4 163.2
13.1 11.7 13.2 11.3 164.7

I
I

1750
To verify the accuracy of the typical load patterns derived,
the derived system power profile is compared with the actual
system load profile during summer season as shown Fig.6. The
supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) of
Taipower Distribution Dispatch Control System (DDCS)
collected the power consumption data of substations within the
service area. The distribution system loss is taken into account
for the adjustment of the power profile solved.
By Fig.6 , it is found that the hourly power consumption
pattern derived by the proposed methodology is very consistent
to the actual system power consumption. The difference of
system peak loading level is very small and the time period
when peak loading occurs is the same. The derived total power
consumption before 7AM is larger than the actual power
consumption. The mismatch of power consumption during the
peak periods is only 6.7%, which implies that the system power
profile can be aggregated by integrating the power
consumptions o f all customer classes with good confidential
accuracy.
MW
1200

1000

400

I
I

O ;

*
,

SCADA system
proqosed method
6

12
HOUR

18

24

Fig.6 Comparison of daily power consumption profiles

during summer season

The contribution Fi of system peak by customer class i is

expressed as
FZ= Dz x
=D
zx
=

D S - AS
Z D j - As
(,-A,
DJ-AS

Z D j - As

A~ ~ D J - D X .......................
)
DZ ~ D J - A s

+-X

(9)

Dz x (,8+ f x a )

where D I : peak loading of customer class i

A i : average loading of customer class 1
Ds : peak loading of whole system
As : average loading of whole system
The capacity cost to be allocated to customer class I is solved as
Eq.(lO)

c,= cs

Fi .................................................
(10)

Fk

k=l

where Cs is the total system capacity cost.

Table 3 shows the proposed capacity cost to be changed
for each customer class. Due to the largest contribution by the
EHV customers to the system peak loading during summer
season, the monthly capacity costs are $ 11.8/KW, and $
7.2lKW for the summer peak and off peak periods respectively.
They are higher than the capacity costs for the other customer
classes. For the residential customer class, the monthly
capacity costs are $ 2.19lKW and $ 1.22lKW for the
summer peak and off peak periods respectively. The capacity
cost for the low voltage noncommerical composite is the
smallest due to its smallest contribution of power consumption
to the whole system loading.

Table 3

The proposed monthly capacity cost for customer

summer peak

customer

6. Desim of Rate Tariff Structure

summer off

2.19

2
3

I
I
I

0.48
2.38

I
I
1

2.26
8.13

1
Based on the estimated power consumption profiles of all
customer classes and the corresponding percentage contribution
of total system load by each customer class, the utility rate tariff
can be designed in a more fair manner by apportion the power
system cost among customer classes.
The customer electricity service charges have to be
determined according to the actual generation, transmission and
distribution system cost to deliver the electricity to the

CDJ-DS

+AlX-

1.22
0.27
1.32
1.26
4.52

nonsuminer

I
I

1.72

1
I

nonsummer off

1.12

0.38
1.87

I
1

0.25
1.25

1.78
6.38

1.15
4.19

6
7

3.27

1.84

2.61

1.66

1.76

0.99

customers. To meet the system peak demand, the fixed cost

such as generators, transmission and distribution lines,

substations, etc. has to be invested and it is treated as the
capacity cost. On the other hand, the energy cost during
different time periods has to be determined according to the fuel
cost of generation combination. The Greens method[ 101 is
applied to find the allocation of capacity cost among customer
classes.

11,s
12.03

7.2
7.32

1.41
7.5 1
10.24

0.94
5.03
6.83

7. Conclusions
In this study, the process of load survey system has been
designed for Taipower system. The stratification sampling
method is considered to determine the customers for power

1751
consumption measurement and analysis. 500 intelligent meters

have been installed at the customer sites to collect the energy

consumption within each 15 minutes interval for two years. The
typical load pattern of each test customer has been derived and
integrated to form the normalized power consumption profile of
each customer class. By the stratification sampling, the load
patterns derived can represent the actual power consumption of
each customer class with 95% confidence level. The normalized
power consumption profile is used to find the total power
consumption patterns of each customer class by retrieving the
monthly billing information of all same type customers in
Taipower CIS system. The system power profile is then
estimated by aggregating the power patterns of all customer
classes. By comparing the simulated power patterns to the
actual SCADA information, it is concluded that the load
patterns derived by the proposed load survey methodology are
very accurate. The whole system cost to deliver the electricity
to customers is then determined based on the fixed cost of
generation, transmission and distribution facilities. The capacity
cost to be charged has been solved according to the power
consumption contribution for each customer class to the total
system demand. By this method, a tariff structure has been
designed in a more proper manner.
Since the customer load patterns solved by the load
survey system can be used to support various h c t i o n s such as
load management, rate structure design, load forecast, etc.,
more intensive load survey system is under investigation by
Taipower to revise the sampling theory and install more meters
to enhance the accuracy of the customer load study.

8. Acknowledeesment
The authors would like to thank Mr.J.P.Liu, Mr.C.H.Lin
Mr.S.T.Tu of Taipower Research Institute for providing the
valuable data in this paper. The financial support provided by
Taipower for this study is also highly appreciated.
9. REFERENCES

C.S.Chen, J.C.Hwang and C. W.Huang, Determination of

Customer Load Characteristics by Load Survey System at
Taipower, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery Vol. 11 no.3,
July 1996, ~ ~ 1 4 3 0 - 1 4 3 5
C.F. Walker and J.J. Pokoski. Residential Load Shape
Modeling Based on Customer Behavior , IEEE Trans.
Vol. PAS-104,No.7, pp.1703-1711,J~ly1985
C.S. Chen, J.S. Wu, M.T. Tsay, C.T. Liu, Application of
Load Pattern and Customer Analysis, Proceeding of the
First International Conference on Power Distribution, Belo
Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Nov. 11-14, 1990.
Load Research Manual, Association of Edison
Illuminating Companies, Feb. 1990 .

Cochran, W.G., Sampling Techniques , 3th ed, John

Wiley and Sons, June. 1997 .
6. Hansen, M.H., W.H.Hunvifz, and W.G.Madow, Sample
Survey Methods and Theory, John Wiley & Sons, 1953.
7. Neymum, J.,On the Two Different Aspect of the
Representative Method:The Method of Stratified
Sampling and the Method of Purposive Selection, Jour.
Roy. Stat. SOC.,97, pp558-606, 1934.
8. OUAD4 Plus Multifunction Electronic Meter Users
Guide, PSI(Process System Incorporated), Charlotte North
Carolina
9. Draper,N.R. and H.Smith, Applied Regression Analysis,
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,New York (1 966)
10. H.P.Chao, Peak Load Pricing and Capacity Planning with
Demand and Supply Uncertainty, The Bell Journal of
Economics, Vo1.14, No.1, 1983
5.

BIOGRAPHY
Chao-Shun Chen received the B.S. degree from National
Taiwan University in 1976 and the M.S, Ph.D. degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at
Arlington in 1981 and 1984 respectively. From 1984 to 1994 he
was a professor of Electrical Engineering department. at
National Sun Yat-Sen University. From 1989 to 1990, he was
on sabbatical at Empros Systems International, where he
worked as a consultant of computer control of power systems.
Since Oct. 1994, he works as the deputy director general of
Department of Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit. From Feb. 1997,
He is with the National Taiwan Institude of Technology as a
full professor. His majors are computer control of power
systems, electrical and mechanical system integration of mass
rapid transit systems.
Jonp-Ching Hwang was born in Tainan, Taiwan on May
26,1960. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Electrical
Engineering from National Taiwan University and National Sun
Yat-Sen University in 1987 and 1995 respectively. He has been
a associate professor in Kaoshiung Inst. of Tech. His research
interest is in the area of load management and distribution
automation.
Chia-Wen Huang was born in Ping-Tung,Taiwan on March
16,1950. He received the B.S degree in Electronical
Engineering from National Taiwan Ocean University in 1972.
He had been a lecture in East-Southern Institute of Technology.
Currently, He is a senior Research Engineer of Power Research
Institute of Taiwan Power Power Company. He is the Project
leader of the Taipower system load survey and the development
of Master plans for Demand-side Management and Integrated
Resource planning.