Peak Load Reduction by Thermostatically Controlled Load Dispatch with Thermal Comfort Model

Abstract

This paper proposes a direct load control (DLC) model which aims to maximize the power consumption reduction of the thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) over the dispatch horizon. The ISO standard thermal comfort model is employed as penalty item in the objective function, so as to ensure the occupants' thermal comfort degree within an acceptable range. The TCLs are organized into multiple groups where each group has a set of thermal comfort parameters. The formulated problem is a combinatorial optimization problem, and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed to solve the model. Case studies are given to validate the proposed model.