Demand Response of HVACs in Large Residential Communities Based on Experimental Developments

Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems contribute the largest electricity usage for a residential community. Modeling of the HVAC systems facilitate the study of demand response (DR) at both the residential and the power system level. In this paper, the equivalent thermal model of a reference house was proposed. Parameters for the reference house were determined based on the systematic study of experimental data obtained from fully instrumented field demonstrators. The aggregated HVAC load was modeled based on the reference house while considering a realistic distribution of HVAC parameters derived from data that was provided by one of the largest smart grid field demonstrators in rural America. A sequential DR as part of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) control was proposed to reduce both ramping rate and peak power at the aggregated level, while maintaining human comfort according to ASHRAE standard.