A Packetized Direct Load Control Mechanism for Demand Side Management

TL;DR

This paper introduces a packetized direct load control (PDLC) mechanism for demand side management, using a quasi-decentralized protocol to reduce peak loads and maintain comfort in thermostatic appliances like air conditioning.

Contribution

It proposes a novel packetized DLC approach with theoretical guarantees for temperature convergence and comfort band control, supported by mathematical theorems and simulations.

Findings

Converges average room temperature to set points.

Ensures temperature stays within comfort bands.

Reduces consumption oscillation during peak demand.

Abstract

Electricity peaks can be harmful to grid stability and result in additional generation costs to balance supply with demand. By developing a network of smart appliances together with a quasi-decentralized control protocol, direct load control (DLC) provides an opportunity to reduce peak consumption by directly controlling the on/off switch of the networked appliances. This paper proposes a packetized DLC (PDLC) solution that is illustrated by an application to air conditioning temperature control. Here the term packetized refers to a fixed time energy usage authorization. The consumers in each room choose their preferred set point, and then an operator of the local appliance pool will determine the comfort band around the set point. We use a thermal dynamic model to investigate the duty cycle of thermostatic appliances. Three theorems are proposed in this paper. The first two theorems evaluate the performance of the PDLC in both transient and steady state operation. The first theorem proves that the average room temperature would converge to the average room set point with fixed number of packets applied in each discrete interval. The second theorem proves that the PDLC solution guarantees to control the temperature of all the rooms within their individual comfort bands. The third theorem proposes an allocation method to link the results in theorem 1 and assumptions in theorem 2 such that the overall PDLC solution works. The direct result of the theorems is that we can reduce the consumption oscillation that occurs when no control is applied. Simulation is provided to verify theoretical results.