Smart Fridge / Dumb Grid?

Smart Fridge / Dumb Grid?

 

Demand Dispatch for the Power Grid of 2020

Joel Mathias, Rim Kaddah,Ana Bušić, and Sean Meyn

Abstract  In discussions at the 2015 HICSS meeting, it was argued that loads can provide most of the ancillary services required today and in the future. Through load-level and grid-level control design, high-quality ancillary service for the grid is obtained without impacting quality of service delivered to the consumer. This approach to grid regulation is called demand dispatch: loads are providing service continuously and automatically, without consumer interference.

In this paper we ask, what intelligence is required at the grid-level? In particular, does the grid-operator require more than one-way communication to the loads? Our main conclusion: risk is not great in lower frequency ranges, e.g., PJM’s RegA or BPA’s balancing reserves. In particular, ancillary services from refrigerators and pool-pumps can be obtained successfully with only one-way communication. This requires intelligence at the loads, and much less intelligence at the grid level.

 

HICSS_Actuation

 

References:  See bibliography HERE for background
@inproceedings{matkadbusmey16,
Title = {Smart Fridge / Dumb Grid? Demand Dispatch for the Power Grid of 2020},
Author = {Joel Mathias and Rim Kaddah and Ana Bu\v{s}i\'{c} and Meyn, Sean},
Booktitle = {Proc. {49th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)}. Online at arXiv:1509.01531},
Month = {Jan},
Pages = {2498-2507},
Year = {2016}}      Link HERE

And a big sequel: 
@inproceedings{matbusmey17,
Title = {Demand Dispatch with Heterogeneous Intelligent Loads},
Author = {{Mathias}, J. and {Bu{\v s}i{\’c}}, A. and {Meyn}, S.},
Booktitle = {Proc. {50th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), and arXiv 1610.00813}},
Year = {2016}}   Link HERE and presentation HERE

 

The term Demand Dispatch is taken from the title of a paper published in a 2010 issue of the IEEE Power and Energy Magazine.  See also the NETL/DOE report with the same title.

Our research has little in common with Demand Response, as defined in textbooks and government resources.  This is the definition adopted by the Department of Energy:

Demand response provides an opportunity for consumers to play a significant role in the operation of the electric grid by reducing or shifting their electricity usage during peak periods in response to time-based rates or other forms of financial incentives

We agree this is valuable, but this is not the focus of our research!