Experimental Determination of the ZIP Coefficients for Modern Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Loads

This paper presents the experimental determination of the ZIP coefficients model to represent (static) modern loads under varying voltage conditions. ZIP are the coefficients of a load model comprised of constant impedance Z, constant current I, and constant power P loads. A ZIP coefficient load model is used to represent power consumed by a load as a function of voltage. A series of surveys was performed on typical residential, commercial, and industrial customers in New York City. Household appliances and industrial equipment found in the different locations were tested in the laboratory by varying the voltage from 1.1-p.u. voltage to 0 and back to 1.1 pu in steps of 3 V to obtain the individual P-V, Q-V, and I-V characteristics. Customer load tables were built using seasonal factors and duty cycles to form weighted contributions for each device in every customer class. The loads found in several residential classes were assembled and tested in the lab. It was found that modern appliances behave quite differently than older appliances even from only 10 years back. Models of the different customer classes were validated against actual recordings of load variations under voltage reduction.