Market-based Control of Air-Conditioning Loads with Switching Constraints for Providing Ancillary Services

TL;DR

This paper presents a market-based control method for air-conditioning loads that ensures device protection and reduced communication needs while enabling participation in ancillary services.

Contribution

It introduces modified bidding and clearing strategies that respect switching constraints and lockout times without increasing communication or computational costs.

Findings

Effective control of ACLs in ancillary services demonstrated

Switching frequency and comfort levels are adjustable via control parameters

Method reduces communication bandwidth and protects device wear

Abstract

Air-conditioning loads (ACLs) are among the most promising demand side resources for their thermal storage capacity and fast response potential. This paper adopts the principle of market-based control (MBC) for the ACLs to participate in the ancillary services. The MBC method is suitable for the control of distributed ACLs because it can satisfy diversified requirements, reduce the communication bandwidth and protect users' privacy. The modified bidding and clearing strategies proposed in this paper makes it possible to adjust the switching frequency and strictly satisfy the lockout time constraint for mechanical wear reduction and device protection, without increasing the communication traffic and computational cost of the control center. The performance of the ACL cluster in two typical ancillary services is studied to demonstrate the effect of the proposed method. The case studies also investigate how the control parameters affect the response performance, comfort level and switching frequency.