Improving power quality efficient in demand response: Aggregated heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems

Abstract

This study aims to identify the role of aggregated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) loads based on system characteristics using the lazy state switching control mode focusing on the overall power consumption rather individual response speed. This study is attempted to provide secondary frequency regulation using aggregated HVAC loads with more stable operation with the lazy state switching control mode based on conditional switching of the HVAC unit’s working state. The stability of power consumption improves power quality in smart grid design and operation. The aggregated HVAC must reach a stable condition before tracking the automatic generation control signal and fully developed smart grids complex structure. Still, HVAC slowed responses make inappropriate for faster demand response services. Unsuitable control algorithm leads to system instability and HVAC unit overuse. An extended command processing on the client side is proposed to deal with the adjusting command. The unique advantages of the proposed algorithm are three folds. (1) the control algorithm preserves its working state and has nothing conflicting with the lockout constraints for individual system units; (2) the control algorithm shows promising performance in smoothing the overall power consumption for the aggregated population; and (3) the control logic is fully compatible with other control algorithms. The proposed modeling and control strategy are validated against simulations of thousands of units, and the simulation result indicates that the proposed approach has promising performance in smoothing the power consumption of aggregate units’ population.