Thesis
Application of intelligent load control to provide grid services
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
12/2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000003977
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/123046
Abstract
Electricity utilities are faced with the mounting challenge of providing a stable supply of power to meet the growing demand while also integrating rapid growth in distributed variable renewable generation. Traditional means of balancing short- and long-term supply and demand imbalance will be expensive. Alternative approaches of using flexible loads in buildings are needed to mitigate the imbalance at a lower cost. The purpose of this research is to show how the intelligent load control (ILC) process can be used to manage loads in buildings by dynamically prioritizing loads for curtailment using both quantitative and qualitative criteria. The ILC process can be deployed on low-cost computing platforms without the need for any additional sensing. ILC was first validated in a simulation environment to provide two grid service use cases: (1) managing monthly peak electricity demand and (2) managing buildings' electricity consumption during a capacity bidding event. After being successfully tested in a simulation environment, ILC was deployed on real buildings to manage electricity consumption to provide two different use cases under different outdoor operating conditions. Both the simulation tests and the real building experiments were deployed using VOLTTRON, a distributed sensing and control platform. The results from the tests and experiments showed that ILC was able to manage the controllable loads (heat pumps) in the building to maintain the electricity consumption at the desired level without a significant impact on occupant comfort. Overall, the results demonstrate that the ILC allows coordination of the controllable loads and provides a more intelligent means of load management than the traditional duty-cycling approach.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Application of intelligent load control to provide grid services
- Creators
- Robert Garrett Lutes Sr.
- Contributors
- Changki Mo (Advisor) - Washington State University, School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (TRIC)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900890803101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis