On Modeling and Marketing the Demand Flexibility of Deferrable Loads at the Wholesale Level

In this paper, we present a methodology to incorporate the service offered by an aggregator of longer duration deferrable loads in the Unit Commitment (UC) optimization. The description of the deferrable demand we propose is accurate, yet not computationally intensive, and can be added to any type of UC optimization so that the ISO can use time-shiftable loads as an additional dispatchable resource to minimize costs, shave demand peaks, and control the wholesale prices of electricity. Simulation results illustrate the benefits of this model compared to the so called “tank” and “detailed” models.