Differential Predictive Control of Residential Building HVACs for Maximizing Renewable Local Consumption and Supporting Fast Voltage Control

TL;DR

This paper introduces a distributed predictive control method for residential HVACs to maximize local renewable energy use and mitigate fast voltage fluctuations, benefiting both grid stability and building owners.

Contribution

It presents a novel differential predictive control scheme tailored for residential HVACs and develops a comprehensive co-simulation platform for impact analysis.

Findings

Reduces grid energy draw by 12%.

Lowers voltage violations and fluctuations by 20%.

Decreases voltage regulator tap changes by 14%.

Abstract

High penetration of distributed energy resources in distribution systems, such as rooftop solar PVs, has caused voltage fluctuations which are much faster than typical voltage control devices can react to, leading to increased operation cost and reduced equipment life. Residential buildings consume about 35% of the electricity in U.S. and are co-located with rooftop solar PV. Thus, they present an opportunity to mitigate these fluctuations locally, while benefiting both the grid and building owners. Previous works on DER-aware localized building energy management mostly focus on commercial buildings and analyzing impacts either on buildings or the grid. To fill the gaps, this paper proposes a distributed, differential predictive control scheme for residential HVAC systems for maximizing renewable local consumption. In addition, a detailed controller-building-grid co-simulation platform is developed and utilized for analyzing the potential impacts of the proposed control scheme on both the buildings and distribution system. Our studies show that the proposed method can provide benefits to both the buildings' owners and the distribution system by reducing energy draw from the grid by 12%, voltage violations and fast fluctuations by 20%, and the number of tap changes in voltage regulators by 14%.