Coordination and control of building HVAC systems to provide frequency regulation to the electric grid

Mohammed M. Olama; Teja Kuruganti; James Nutaro; Jin Dong

doi:10.3390/en11071852

Coordination and control of building HVAC systems to provide frequency regulation to the electric grid

Mohammed M. Olama, Teja Kuruganti, James Nutaro, Jin Dong

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Buildings consume 73% of electricity produced in the United States and, currently, they are largely passive participants in the electric grid. However, the flexibility in building loads can be exploited to provide ancillary services to enhance the grid reliability. In this paper, we investigate two control strategies that allow Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems in commercial and residential buildings to provide frequency regulation services to the grid while maintaining occupants comfort. The first optimal control strategy is based on model predictive control acting on a variable air volume HVAC system (continuously variable HVAC load), which is available in large commercial buildings. The second strategy is rule-based control acting on an aggregate of on/off HVAC systems, which are available in residential buildings in addition to many small to medium size commercial buildings. Hardware constraints that include limiting the switching between the different states for on/off HVAC units to maintain their lifetimes are considered. Simulations illustrate that the proposed control strategies provide frequency regulation to the grid, without affecting the indoor climate significantly.

Original language	English
Article number	1852
Journal	Energies
Volume	11
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/en11071852
State	Published - 2018

Funding

Acknowledgments: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Keywords

Ancillary service
Commercial/residential buildings
Demand response
Frequency regulation
HVAC systems
Model predictive control
Rule-based control

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10.3390/en11071852

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abstract = "Buildings consume 73% of electricity produced in the United States and, currently, they are largely passive participants in the electric grid. However, the flexibility in building loads can be exploited to provide ancillary services to enhance the grid reliability. In this paper, we investigate two control strategies that allow Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems in commercial and residential buildings to provide frequency regulation services to the grid while maintaining occupants comfort. The first optimal control strategy is based on model predictive control acting on a variable air volume HVAC system (continuously variable HVAC load), which is available in large commercial buildings. The second strategy is rule-based control acting on an aggregate of on/off HVAC systems, which are available in residential buildings in addition to many small to medium size commercial buildings. Hardware constraints that include limiting the switching between the different states for on/off HVAC units to maintain their lifetimes are considered. Simulations illustrate that the proposed control strategies provide frequency regulation to the grid, without affecting the indoor climate significantly.",

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Coordination and control of building HVAC systems to provide frequency regulation to the electric grid

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