Frequency regulation from flexible loads: Potential, economics, and implementation

Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs) such as air conditioners, heat pumps, water heaters and refrigerators have a great potential for providing regulation reserve to the grid. This paper aims to provide a foundation for a practical method of enabling TCLs to provide regulation service. We study the economic, regulatory, and practical aspects to realize such a vision. We show that the potential of TCLs in California is more than enough for both current and predicted near-future regulation requirements. Moreover, we estimate the cost and revenue of TCLs, discuss the qualification requirements and participation incentive methods, and present a practical control framework for TCLs to provide regulation service. Numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the efficacy of our methods in addressing practical issues such as short cycling of units, communication latency, and dynamics modeling errors.