Optimized scheduling of battery storage and appliances for demand response

Panel: 8. Buildings: technologies and systems beyond energy efficiency

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Luís Neves, INESC Coimbra, Polytechnic of Leiria, Portugal
Luca Zampighi, Polytechnic of Leiria

Abstract

The desire to increase the use of renewable energies, reducing the environmental impacts of energy use, has the potential to create stability problems to the electric grid. As part of the solution, demand response programs may play an important role by providing part of the flexibility needed to adapt the now variable supply to the variable demand. However, not all types of consumers have a natural capability to offer significant load change, namely residential consumers, even if considering their aggregation. However, the use of battery storage combined with the management of loads and eventual self-generation devices may provide enough flexibility to give small consumers a possible role in supporting the grid.

The objective of the work here described was to optimize the scheduling of user appliances and battery storage charging and discharging to respond to real-time price schemes and the eventual availability of self-generation, while limiting the discomfort for the consumer. An analysis was made of two possible real-time price schemes, one following the actual variations of the Iberian wholesale market, still strongly dominated by thermal power plants, and another inversely following the variation of renewable generation in Portugal.

The results show that, although with present conditions only the maximization of the usage of self-generation may justify this type of control, a future power system dominated by variable renewable generation will probably lead to many situations in which load flexibility can be paid enough money to make this kind of system cost-effective.

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