Domestic EWH and HVAC management in smart grids: Potential benefits and realization

Abstract

Demand response is envisioned as a key solution to increase network efficiency as well as to alleviate challenges such as growing demand. In this paper, domestic electric water heater (EWH) and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) are considered for potential demand response applications. An interaction between the system operator and consumers is considered to facilitate managing cyclic operation of consumers’ heating loads. A centralized control model is first developed and formulated to achieve potential benefits of demand response of EWH and HVAC loads. Then, a distributed control algorithm is designed for practical implementation. In the proposed algorithm, house-wide modules (HwMs) submit their load modification proposals to system-wide module (SwM). SwM judges the received proposals and accepts those which are in line with the objective. This process iterates until no further proposals are received. Finally, the distributed control algorithm is applied to a group of consumers and the obtained results are thoroughly discussed. The objective is to attain a desirable load profile while the consumers’ thermal comfort is not sacrificed. The analyses affirm significant benefits of demand response from domestic EWH and HVAC loads which are effectively realized by the distributed algorithm.