Direct control of a large population of electrical space heaters based on bin state transition model

摘要

Thermostatically controlled loads have great potential for being used as a demand side resource for ancillary service provision. Developing smart communication and metering infrastructure provides possibility to embed advanced control strategies, such as model predictive control, into electrical energy production and distribution processes using concepts of smart grid and virtual power plant. This paper deals with aggregated modelling of a large group of electrical space heaters and model-based control system design using this model. Aggregated model is designed using bin state transition model principle. The obtained results show that the model predictive controller based on this model is able to control large groups of thermostatically controlled loads in a way that meets the requirements on the secondary control. This holds even if significant difference between model (assuming homogeneous population) and reality (heterogeneous population) exists.