Demand Response forSmart Grids and Smart Buildings

Demand response (DR) is well-advocated for energy managementsin recent years so as

to relieve the stress on electrical grids caused by the soaring demand on electricity during
the peak-load periods.Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of Department of Energy
provides the definition of DR as changes in electric use by demand-side resources from
their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity, or to
incentive payments designed to induce lower electricity use at times of high wholesale
market prices or when system reliability is jeopardized. Driven by economic and
environmental concerns, the power grid is demanded for its transformation to an efficient,
flexible, reliable and sustainable energy grid. This is referred to asthe smart grid. On one
hand, a smart grid is expected to accommodate more renewable energy resources. On the
other hand, it needs to accept more active participation from the energy end-users. This
user participation can actively improve the electricity market by reducing the overall cost
of energy supply, increasing the reserve margin, and assisting to maintainthe system
reliability.Some research directionsin this broad area are gaining more and more
importance:
1)Autonomous distributed demand response for smart grids: The traditional
electrical grids are controlled by a centralcontrol center. During a DR event, thecontrol
center needs to gather all the information from end-users and send the load control signal
back via a two-way communication network between each end-user and the central
controller. As thepenetration level of renewable energy resourcesinto large-scaleelectrical
grids grows, the centralizedsolution has become often inapplicabledue to lack of the
knowledge regarding the controllability of the loads from remote devices and heavy
communication traffic for a large-scale electrical grid. The demand of autonomous
distributed solutions for DR in smart grids rises. The goal is to establish models and design
control algorithms for autonomous distributed DRthatis expected to effectivelyrealize
such an event, reduce the communication loads, and enhance the robustness to the failure
of communication links.
2)Demand bidding for smart grids:Demand bidding is an impressive option for
incentive-based demand response. A demand biddingprogram assumes thatthe utility
companies or agentsare willing to paytheir customerswith incentives to reduce their
electric loadswhen the demands for electricity are predicted to be difficult to meet. This
day-aheadprogram allows customers to submit load reduction bids on an hourly
basis.Under deregulation, more and more utility companies or agents are introduced into
the market. They purchase electricity from power generation companies at a wholesale
market price and sell it to their customers at a retail market price. They offer the
opportunities of DR events when the electrical grid is potentially endangered. The
competitions among those suppliers drive them to reduce the electricity price and provide
better service for their customers; while there exist competitions among the end-users
since they have to compete for a limited amount of incentives. The research goal is to
establish the model and design optimization algorithms to set the incentive that
couldbenefit both parties of DR events. Both supply and demand-level models are
required to address this issue.