A Study of Virtual Energy Storage From Thermostatically Controlled Loads Under Time-Varying Weather Conditions

Austin Robert Coffman (1) , Ana Bušić (2, 3) , Prabir Barooah (1)

1 UF - University of Florida [Gainesville]
2 DYOGENE - Dynamics of Geometric Networks
3 LINCS - Laboratory of Information, Network and Communication Sciences

We propose a control architecture for distributed coordination of a collection of on/off TCLs (thermostatically controlled loads), such as residential air conditioners, to provide the same service to the power grid as a large battery. A key constraint is to ensure that consumers' quality of service (QoS) is maintained. Our proposal involves replacing the thermostats at the loads by a randomized controller, following recent proposals in this direction. The new local controller has a tunable parameter that serves as the control command from the balancing authority (BA). Compared to prior work in this area, our proposed architecture can handle large disturbances from the outside temperature. Weather-induced disturbance also imposes an algorithm-independent limit on the capacity of the virtual energy storage the loads can provide. This key limitation, which was ignored in prior work, is incorporated in our formulation in a principled manner.

Domaines: Energie électrique; Systèmes et contrôle [cs.SY]

Austin Robert Coffman, Ana Bušić, Prabir Barooah. A Study of Virtual Energy Storage From Thermostatically Controlled Loads Under Time-Varying Weather Conditions. International High Performance Buildings Conference, Jul 2018, Purdue, United States. ⟨hal-01968587⟩