Optimization of the Contracted Electric Power by Means of Genetic Algorithms

Abstract

An adequate selection of an energy provider and tariff requires us to analyze the differentalternatives to choose one that satisfies your needs. In particular, choosing the right electricity tariff isessential for reducing company costs and improving competitiveness. This paper analyzes the energyconsumption of large consumers that make intensive use of electricity and proposes the use of geneticalgorithms for optimizing the tariff selection. The aim is to minimize electricity costs including twofactors: the cost of power contracted and the heavy penalties for excess of power demand over thepower contracted in certain time periods. In order to validate the proposed methodology, a casestudy based on the real data of energy consumption of a large Spanish university is presented. Theresults obtained show that the genetic algorithm and other bio-inspired approaches are able to reducethe costs associated to the electricity bill.