Modeling Populations of Thermostatic Loads with Switching Rate Actuation

TL;DR

This paper models thermostatic devices with stochastic hybrid systems and introduces an external actuation mechanism, deriving a Fokker-Planck equation verified through simulations, relevant for power system management.

Contribution

It proposes a novel stochastic hybrid model for thermostatic loads with switch actuation and derives a corresponding Fokker-Planck equation verified numerically.

Findings

Successful numerical verification of the Fokker-Planck equation

Introduction of an external actuation mechanism for thermostatic loads

Enhanced modeling for power system operation

Abstract

We model thermostatic devices using a stochastic hybrid description, and introduce an external actuation mechanism that creates random switch events in the discrete dynamics. We then conjecture the form of the Fokker-Planck equation and successfully verify it numerically using Monte Carlo simulations. The actuation mechanism and subsequent modeling result are relevant for power system operation.