Large Scale Demand Response of Thermostatic Loads

This study is concerned with large populations of residential thermostatic loads (e.g. refrigerators, air conditioning or heat pumps). The purpose is to gain control over the aggregate power consumption in order to provide balancing services for the electrical grid. Without affecting the temperature limits and other operational constraints, and by using only limited communication, it is possible to make use of the individual thermostat deadband flexibility to step-up or step-down the power consumption of the population as if it were a power plant. The individual thermostatic loads experience no loss of service or quality, and the electrical grid gains a fast power resource of hundreds of MW or more.
This study proposes and analysis a mechanism that introduces random on/off
and off/on switches in the normal thermostat operation of the units. This mechanism is called Switching Actuation. The control architecture is defined by parsimonious communication requirements that also have a high level data privacy, and it furthermore guarantees a robust and secure local operation. Mathematical models are put forward, and the effectiveness is shown by numerical simulations. A case study of 10000 residential refrigerators is used throughout the work.