Real-time Flexibility Feedback for Closed-loop Aggregator and System Operator Coordination

TL;DR

This paper introduces a real-time flexibility feedback mechanism for aggregators that balances scalability and informativeness, enabling efficient system-level optimization while respecting load constraints.

Contribution

It proposes a novel entropy-based feedback signal design that is concise, informative, and guarantees private constraint satisfaction in real-time load aggregation.

Findings

Effective in online cost minimization

Provides accurate capacity estimation

Ensures private load constraints are met

Abstract

Aggregators have emerged as crucial tools for the coordination of distributed, controllable loads. However, to be used effectively, aggregators must be able to communicate the available flexibility of the loads they control to the system operator in a manner that is both (i) concise enough to be scalable to aggregators governing hundreds or even thousands of loads and (ii) informative enough to allow the system operator to send control signals to the aggregator that lead to optimization of system-level objectives, such as cost minimization, and do not violate private constraints of the loads, such as satisfying specific load demands. In this paper, we present the design of a real-time flexibility feedback signal based on maximization of entropy. The design provides a concise and informative signal that can be used by the system operator to perform online cost minimization and real-time capacity estimation, while provably satisfying the private constraints of the loads. In addition to deriving analytic properties of the design, we illustrate the effectiveness of the design using a dataset from an adaptive electric vehicle charging network.