A Hybrid Social Model for Simulating the Effects of Policies on Residential Power Consumption

In this paper, a hybrid social model of econometric model and social influence model is proposed to settle the problem in power resources management. And, a hybrid society simulation platform based on the proposed model, termed Residential Electric Power Consumption Multi-Agent Systems (RECMAS), is designed to simulate residential power consumption by multi-agent. RECMAS is composed of consumer agent, power supplier agent, and policy maker agent. It provides the policy makers with an additional tool to evaluate power price policies and public education campaigns in different scenarios. Through an influenced diffusion mechanism, RECMAS can simulate the factors affecting power consumption, and the ones associated with public education campaigns. The application of the method for simulating residential power consumption in China is presented.