Time Division Switching Model for Supervised
Scheduling of Air Conditioners as Demand Side
Management
Tafsir Ahmed Khan, Syed Abdullah-Al-Nahid, Silvia Tasnim, Md. Abu Taseen and Tareq Aziz
Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology
Dhaka, Bangladesh
tafsir.eete@gmail.com
Abstract—Air conditioners (ACs), are significant elements in
demand side management (DSM) as they typically occupy the
largest share of demand in a residential building. To tackle
situations with an extreme energy crisis, a direct load control
(DLC) based scheduling strategy can be employed instead of an
area-wise hourly load-shedding approach. By controlling the AC
loads in a supervised manner, the peak demand can be reduced
and a good amount of energy can be saved. In this paper, an AC
switching model is presented where an hour is divided among
all the ACs in a building equally. The model generates a profile
for all ACs which is used for switching. To cut a specific amount
of demand each AC should get a reduced number of minutes of
runtime. The developed model is simulated considering 30 ACs
and the accomplishment of the load cut goal is verified with DLC
requirements ranging from 0 to 51 kW. The results exhibit the
novelty of the proposed model in peak demand reduction and
energy saving.
Index Terms—Direct load control, demand side management,
load reduction, air conditioner.
I. I NTRODUCTION
For a power system to function properly, demand and supply
must be kept constantly in balance [1]. Due to technological
advancement, the demand for power is always growing. The
utility must supply adequate generation to meet this growing
demand. Many countries have more than enough generation
capacity for their peak demand. For instance, Bangladesh has
an installed capacity of more than 25,500 MW whereas the
peak demand is close to half [2]. However, the recent global
energy crisis because of political instability makes the task of
demand meeting very difficult [3]. To cope with the concurrent
energy crisis and increased fuel costs, most countries are
adopting policies to cut down the demand. One approach to
cut down the demand can be area-wise load shedding which
is adopted by Bangladesh [4]. The problem with this approach
is that all loads, regardless of their importance level, are shut
off at that hour of load shedding.
Another approach to deal with this demand cut is to lower
the power usage of interruptible residential loads as a part of
demand response (DR) program [5]. In usual cases, consumers
can pick which of their interruptible loads to join the program
978-1-6654-5577-0/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE
voluntarily [6]. However, this can be imposed at the time of
extreme importance. Cutting down the usage of interruptible
residential loads can potentially reduce the peak of a demand
curve which can come in handy to take away pressure on
existing distribution network [7]. To cut down the residential
demand by scheduling interruptible loads (such as ACs), a
supervised load scheduling model is necessary [6]. ACs are
suitable residential loads for supervised scheduling in the
context of Bangladesh as most other loads are non-shiftable
and non-interruptible. ACs are occupying the big shares of
residential demand as the number of ACs in Bangladesh is
increasing very rapidly. According to a report from a popular
marketplace in Bangladesh, the AC market has hit 30% higher
in 2021 compared to the last five years [8].
Controlling residential loads as demand side management
activity has achieved a lot of attention recently in the field of
research. A lot of research has been carried out in the field of
demand reduction. However, a few studies have considered
ACs as the main element of residential demand cuts and
proposed an appropriate scheduling scheme for achieving
desired demand level. In Ref. [6], a Time-of-use (TOU)
pricing-based demand response (DR) program is utilized in
shaping the usage of ACs. The TOU-DR program reduces
the peak load from 960 kW to 933 kW and saves 180 kWh
of air conditioning energy consumption. In Ref. [9], a home
energy management algorithm with DR has been established
to schedule home appliances’ activities considering AC along
with three other types of appliances. By taking into account
both user convenience and electric appliance attributes, this al-
gorithm reduces energy costs. The algorithm toggles the AC’s
operation to keep the room’s temperature inside a range and
turns off the less important loads according to the consumer’s
preference if a demand limit is enforced. The study in [10]
proposes a DLC mechanism that was tested for a large region
of India. ACs are controlled based on the generation capacity
of the region. The results of the study indicate a reduction
in regional peak loads by 1.98% (179.3 MW). In Ref. [11],
a closed-loop control strategy is proposed for a large number
of ACs to contribute to DR. The strategy controls the ACs to
keep the room temperature between two set points and reduce
the peak load. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge,
none of these studies have worked with a requirement-based
demand cut goal. All of the above studies have reduced the
peak load by some extent through temperature control and
switching off other appliances. Therefore, these studies may
face difficulty if a DLC requirement is enforced or no other
shiftable/ interruptible load is available.
In this paper, a time-division switching model for scheduling
ACs as a part of demand side management is presented. This
model schedules the ACs of a residential complex inside a
particular hour to reduce the demand by direct load control/
cut (DLC) method according to the requirement from utility
or EV charging stations. The rest of the paper is structured as
follows- methodology is presented in Section II, the simulated
results are shown in Section III and Section IV concludes the
paper with a few suggestions for future work.
II. M ETHODOLOGY
The methodology of the work has one objective which is
keeping the power level under a given value by cutting down
the demand by a specific requirement (DLC requirement).
A basic overview of this task is illustrated in Fig. 1 where
the demand for ACs in an hour (slot demand) and intended
power level (intended demand) are shown (Fig. 1(a)). Intended
demand is the power level of all ACs after cutting down the
original demand level for that hour. This intended demand can
be achieved in two ways-
1) A few ACs will be off for the entire hour, others will
remain active
2) All ACs will be off for a few minutes in an hour (this
must happen sequentially, but not all at once)
In the first way, if a few ACs are kept switched off for the
entire hour then aggregated power level will be less than the
slot demand, hence the intended demand level can be achieved.
Fig. 1. Illustration of basic overview. . tm =
However, selecting the set of ACs which will remain off can
be a big challenge as the deprived users may not approve
this shutdown for the entire hour. This makes the second way
a better option for demand cut. Although, this way needs a
supervised switching scheme that will ensure the attainment
of the intended demand level.
In the later way, if all ACs are kept switched off (all at once)
for a few minutes then total energy consumption for that hour
will be reduced. However, in this unsupervised switching, the
aggregated power level will be the same as the slot demand
for the active minutes (tm ) and zero for inactive minutes.
This is indicated by “1” in Fig. 1(b). The line indicates the
power level whereas the area under the line means total energy
consumption. If all ACs are kept switched off for a few
minutes in a supervised manner (sequentially & not all at
once) then the intended demand level can be achieved keeping
the total energy consumption the same as the unsupervised
manner. This is depicted by “2” in Fig. 1(b). The line indicates
the power level after supervised AC switching whereas the area
under the line means total energy consumption which is equal
as the unsupervised case.
Calculating the value of active minutes or maximum min-
utes of runtime i.e. tm is a crucial step in the proposed
methodology. The determination of tm is illustrated from
equations (1) to (3). This is the value of time for which the
energy consumption for unsupervised AC switching will be
equal to the supervised method (shown in (2)).
SD = NAC × PAC (1)
SD × tm = ID × 60 (2)
ID × 60 (SD − DLCreq ) × 60
tm = = (3)
SD SD
where, SD: slot demand, ID: intended demand, DLCreq :
DLC requirement, NAC : number of ACs, PAC : average power
rating of each AC.
The intended demand for ACs is then calculated by subtract-
ing the DLC requirement from the slot demand of ACs (shown
in (3)). A safety threshold (ST ) can be considered while
determining the intended demand. This means an additional
demand (some portion of the slot demand, “SD × ST ”) is
cut on top of this DLC requirement. This will ensure the
achievement of the DLC requirement. In some cases, an
additional amount of load can be added to the total demand
due to the sudden activation of some ceiling fans. This is a
usual user’s response when the AC is being turned off. The
safety threshold should cover up this additional increase in
demand. If one ceiling fan is considered against one AC then
the safety threshold can be determined by (4).
PCF
ST = × 100% (4)
PAC
{SD − DLCreq − (SD × ST )} × 60
SD
 others remain active. The modeling for Strategy-1 is shown in
(6).


 3, 20 , 40 ≤ tm < 45
, 45 ≤ tm




 4, 15 < 48
5, 12 , 48 ≤ tm < 50



(G1 , tof f ) = 6, 10 , 50 ≤ tm < 54 (6)

10, 6 , 54 ≤ tm < 55








 12, 5 , 55 ≤ tm < 56
, 56 ≤ tm

15, 4 < 60

If tm is less than 40, then the model checks whether tm is

less than 5 or not. If yes, then all the ACs are switched off
for the hour. If tm is greater than or equal to 5 but less than
40 then Strategy-2 is employed. Here, the ACs are divided
into “G2 ” groups, and one group is switched on for “ton ”
minutes while others remain off. The modeling for Strategy-2
is illustrated in (7).


2, 30 , 30 ≤ tm < 40
, 20 ≤ tm < 30




 3, 20
4, 15 , 15 ≤ tm < 20

Fig. 2. Flow chart of the proposed methodology. .


(G2 , ton ) = 5, 12 , 12 ≤ tm < 15 (7)

6, 10 , 10 ≤ tm < 12




{(1 − ST ) × SD − DLCreq } × 60


 10, 6 , 6 ≤ tm < 10
= (5)

, 5 ≤ tm < 6

SD 12, 5
where, ST : safety threshold, PCF : average power rating of a Once a strategy is employed, a 2-dimensional array
ceiling fan (AC Status) is created containing 1s and 0s which are assigned
Fig. 2 shows the flow chart of the proposed methodology. against all ACs. 1s denote the ON status while 0s indicate the
It starts by collecting static parameters such as the number of OFF state. If DLC requirement is 0 then all elements of this
ACs, the power rating of each AC, and the DLC requirement array are 1 by default. At the final stage, this array is used for
for a particular hour. ACs switching.
If the DLC requirement for the hour is equal to 0 then
switching of ACs is unnecessary. It means all ACs can remain III. R ESULT A ND A NALYSIS
active as usual. However, if the DLC requirement is greater The basic simulation parameters for the considered residen-
than 0 then switching of ACs is required. At first, the total tial building are given in TABLE I. The simulation results of
demand for the ACs and energy consumption of that hour the designed air conditioner switching scheme are illustrated
are calculated. Numerically, the value of energy consumption in Fig. 3 to Fig. 13. In this simulation, 30 ACs are considered
is equal to the power demand for 1 hour (60 minutes). The with 1.7 kW of average power consumption for a particular
intended demand for ACs is then calculated by subtracting hour. This gives a total slot demand of 51 kW for that hour
the DLC requirement from the slot demand of ACs. The which can be seen in Fig. 3. A safety threshold of 5% is
safety threshold (ST ) is considered while determining the considered while calculating. This ensures the attainment of
intended demand. The equivalent energy consumed by the ACs the DLC requirement.
is calculated for the slot if the intended demand is needed to
be achieved. From this equivalent energy consumption value,
TABLE I
the maximum minutes of the runtime of each AC (tm ) is C ONSIDERED PARAMETERS FOR THE R ESIDENTIAL B UILDING
calculated by (5). For any non-zero DLC requirement, this
Parameter Value
maximum minutes of runtime i.e. tm must be less than 60
Number of ACs 30
(fraction of an hour). Average power requirement per AC 1.7 kW
Depending on the value of tm one of two strategies is Average power requirement per ceil- ∼80 W [12]
adopted. If tm is more than 40 minutes, then Strategy-1 is ing fan
Safety threshold 80/1700 = 4.7% ≈ 5%
employed. In this strategy, the ACs are divided into “G1 ” DLC requirement 0 - 51 kW (0% - 100%)
groups, and one group is switched off for “tof f ” minutes while
 The results are divided into 2 segments: cases that follow
“Strategy-1” and cases that follow “Strategy-2”. The results
for the cases that follow “Strategy-1” are shown in Fig. 3 to
Fig. 6 whereas results for the cases that follow “Strategy-2” are
illustrated from Fig. 7 to Fig. 10. In Fig. 3, the original and the
intended demand curves for ACs at 2 kW DLC requirement
are shown. To achieve this aimed demand level, all ACs are
needed to be switched off (Strategy-1) for a certain time (tof f ),
a few minutes in that particular hour. In the case shown in
Fig. 3, all the ACs should be switched off for 6 minutes (tof f Fig. 3. Power consumptions of ACs: Before, aimed and after unsupervised
distribution at 2 kW DLC requirement.
= 6) if at least 2 kW of power needed to be cut. Although
an unsupervised AC load shedding may not give the required
result. Here, if all the ACs are active at the same time the
power level will be identical to the original demand level. It’s
important to mention that if there was no safety threshold, the
shedding time would be less.
Power consumption and AC switching profiles are shown in
Fig. 4. In Fig. 4(a), the aimed and achieved power consumption
levels are illustrated. The achieved power consumption curve
is drawn for the equal and supervised distribution of allocated
times (tm = 54 minutes for 2 kW DLC requirement) to each Fig. 4. At 2 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions: aimed and
AC. In Fig. 4(b), the AC switching profile, which comes supervised distribution (b) AC switching profile.
from the “AC Status” array, is visually represented where each
row represents a particular AC and each column represents a
particular minute in the considered hour. An empty cell in
a row represents that the AC is off in that particular minute
(indicated by the column number of that cell). Here, 30 ACs
are divided into 10 groups (G1 = 10) according to (2) where
each group is switched off for 6 minutes (tof f = 6) and
remained active for 54 minutes.
In Fig. 5, the power consumption and AC switching profiles
for 8 kW DLC are illustrated. In Fig. 5(a), the aimed and Fig. 5. At 8 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions (b) AC switching
achieved power consumption levels are shown. One important profile.
issue with the achieved power consumption profile of 8 kW
DLC is that it has increased from 37.4 kW to 39.1 kW after
30 minutes. This happens because of the unequal distribution
of ACs while forming groups. If the total number of ACs is
not divisible by the group number then this issue arises. After
dividing most of the ACs equally in each group, the leftover
ACs are grouped one by one starting from 1st group. However,
the number of allocated minutes remains equal for all ACs.
This can be understood from Fig. 5(b), where AC switching
profile for 8 kW DLC is depicted. Here, 30 ACs are divided
Fig. 6. At 12 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions (b) AC switching
into 4 groups (G1 = 4), where each group is switched off for profile.
15 minutes (tof f = 15) and remained active for 45 minutes.
The first 28 ACs are divided into 4 groups equally (7 ACs per
group). The last 2 leftover ACs are added to the first 2 groups. 6(b), the AC switching profile for 12 kW DLC is represented.
This causes 16 ACs to be switched off for the first 30 minutes Here, 30 ACs are divided into 3 groups (G1 = 3) equally,
whereas 14 ACs are switched off for the last 30 minutes. where each group is switched off for 20 minutes (tof f = 20)
The results at 12 kW DLC requirement are much simpler and remained active for 40 minutes. Because of the equal
compared to 8 kW DLC. In Fig. 6, the power consumption distribution of all ACs to 3 groups, there is no change in the
and AC switching profiles for 12 kW DLC are shown. In Fig. achieved power consumption level.
6(a), the aimed and achieved power consumption levels are “Strategy-2” is practically employed when the DLC require-
shown. The aimed power consumption is 36.45 kW and the ment is quite high compared to previous cases. In “Strategy-2”,
achieved power consumption after the supervised distribution to achieve the aimed demand level, all ACs are needed to be
is just below the aimed consumption level, i.e., 34 kW. In Fig. switched on for a certain time (ton), a few minutes in that
particular hour. In Fig. 7(a), the power consumption levels,
both aimed and achieved, for 20 kW DLC requirement are
illustrated. In Fig. 7(b), the AC switching profile for a 20 kW
DLC is represented where all ACs are divided into 2 groups
(G2 = 2). Each group is switched on for 30 minutes (ton =
30) and remained off for 30 minutes. Because of the equal
distribution of all ACs to 2 groups, there is no variation in the
achieved power consumption level.
In Fig. 8, the simulation results for the case with a 28
kW DLC requirement are illustrated. The power consumption Fig. 7. At 20 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions (b) AC switching
levels, both aimed and achieved, are shown in Fig. 8(a). In profile.
Fig. 8(b), the AC switching profile is represented where all
30 ACs are divided into 3 groups (G2 = 3). Each group is
switched on for 20 minutes (ton = 20) and remained off for
40 minutes. In this case, the AC switching profile experiences
an equal distribution and as a result, there is no variation in
the achieved power consumption level. However, the case with
a 35 kW DLC requirement (shown in Fig. 9) doesn’t have an
equal distribution in the AC switching profile. Here 30 ACs
are divided into 4 groups (G2 = 4), where the first 2 groups
have 8 ACs each and the last 2 groups have 7 ACs each. Fig. 8. At 28 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions (b) AC switching
Each group is active for 15 minutes (ton = 15) and switched profile.
off for 45 minutes. Hence, the equal distribution of ACs, in
this case, creates an obvious variation in the achieved power
consumption level after 30 minutes.
The results for the case with a 40 kW DLC requirement are
illustrated in Fig. 10. In Fig. 10(a), the power consumption
levels are shown whereas the AC switching profile is repre-
sented in Fig. 10(b). The aimed power consumption is 8.45
kW and the achieved power consumption after the supervised
distribution is just below the aimed consumption level, i.e.,
5.1 kW. Here, 30 ACs are divided into 10 groups (G2 = 10),
Fig. 9. At 35 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions (b) AC switching
where each group is switched on for 6 minutes (ton = 6) and profile.
remained off for 54 minutes.
Fig. 11 illustrates two extreme cases of the simulations
where no groups are formed. Fig. 11(a) represents the AC
switching profile for the case where no direct load cut is
necessary. In this case, no group is formed and no AC faces
forced shut down. Here the maximum minutes of runtime i.e.
tm is equal to 60. When tm is less than 5, in this case, for the
DLC requirement ranging from 45 to 51 kW, all the ACs are
switched off. The AC switching profile for this extreme case
is depicted in Fig. 11(b).
Fig. 10. At 40 kW DLC requirement: (a) Power consumptions (b) AC
The plot of maximum calculated time (tm ) and actually switching profile.
allocated time (“60 - tof f ” for Strategy-1, “ton ” for Strategy-
2) with respect to DLC requirement is shown in Fig. 12. The
allocated time is always equal to or less than the maximum
calculated time. The closer the allocated time to the maximum the safety threshold). The curve without the safety threshold
calculated time, the more utilization of available energy is has gone below the DLC requirement line on 4 occasions.
made by the system. From the figure, it can be observed that This means on those 4 points DLC requirements are not met
the proposed methodology is more frequently efficient towards even though the allocated time is always equal to or less than
the two ends compared to the middle of the plot. Fig. 13 the maximum calculated time. This happens because of the
illustrates whether the DLC requirement is achieved or not unequal distribution of ACs in all the groups. This problem is
in the simulation by the proposed methodology. The straight overcome by applying the safety threshold while calculating
line represents the DLC requirement whereas the uneven lines tm. The dashed uneven line represents the demand cut by the
represent the demand cut by the model (both with and without model with the safety threshold where it is always above the
 TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF THE P ROPOSED M ODEL WITH S IMILAR S TUDIES

Key aspects Proposed [6] [9] [10] [11]

Model
Objective Active Passive Passive Passive Passive
demand demand demand demand demand
cut cut cut cut cut
DSM attain- Strongly No Partial No No
ment yes
Load curtail- Direct Indirect Direct Direct Direct
ment type
Switching Time ToU Temp. Temp. Temp.
Fig. 11. AC switching profile: (a) No DLC requirement (b) DLC requirement
strategy division- pricing- & & range-
45 to 51 kW.
based based comfort- comfort- based
based based
Type of Indepen- Depen- Depen- Depen- Depen-
dependency dent dent dent dent dent
(on other
appliances)

energy and reduce peak demand in extreme situations. In

Fig. 12. Maximum calculated and actually allocated time vs DLC require-
ment.
Fig. 13. Achievement of DLC requirement: with and without safety threshold.
DLC requirement line.
The key aspects of the presented AC switching model are
compared with a few similar studies. TABLE II shows a
summary of the comparison. The main focus of this study
was to propose a model that achieves a certain demand cut
goal. Unlike the other studies, the proposed model can attain
the DSM objectives at all times.
IV. C ONCLUSION
A time-division switching model for scheduling the air
conditioners in a residential building is presented in this
paper. As a part of demand-side management, this scheme
reduces the peak demand of the building and eventually saves
energy consumed by the ACs. The model schedules the ACs
to achieve the demand cut goal. The total time in an hour
is divided into considered 30 ACs which are then switched
on and off according to generated scheduling pattern. The
attainment of the DSM is tested from 0 to 51 kW DLC
requirement. The simulation results show that the scheme
can cut down the demand as per requirement which may
eliminate the need for area-wise hourly load shedding to save
future research studies, some real-world parameters such as
comfortable settings of ACs, the outside temperature, the time
of the day, and users’ comfort will be addressed.
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