A Smart Direct Load Control Approach Using Dynamic Voltage Control for Demand Response Programs

Abstract

—This study proposes a direct load control (DLC) approach for residential demand response (DR) programs, which uses a dynamic voltage control method to reduce the peak electricity consumption in homes. In the proposed approach, if a utility needs to reduce electrical load consumption, a DLC signal is sent to a smart meter (SM) either via utility’s communication infrastructure. SM communicates with a group of smart plugs attached to selected domestic appliances to individually reduce the output voltage. The electrical consumption of selected appliances can be reduced without turning them OFF. Hence, the peak demand of a residential house can be reduced without turning off selected power-intensive loads, like in a classic direct load control (DLC) approach used by several electric utilities. The proposed dynamic voltage control is operated can be done within a certain limit defined set by international standards to avoid any possible negative impacts on domestic appliances. The results indicated that the proposed DLC could reduce the peak electricity demand up to around 32% using both voltage control and renewable energy. The proposed approach is expected to give flexibility to utilities to control the electrical demand of homes while ensuring participants remain more comfortable during a DR event.

Keywords:

• direct load control
• demand response
• dynamic voltage control
• PV systems
• domestic loads

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This study was supported partially by Istanbul Development Agency under Grant KCE-27.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Onur Elma

Onur Elma joined Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU) of the Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering as an Assistant Professor in 2021. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Yildiz Technical University (YTU), Istanbul, Turkey, in 2011 and 2016 respectively. He worked as a project engineer in the industry between 2009 and 2010. He was employed as a research assistant and assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at YTU between 2011 and 2021. He has been at the Smart Energy Research Center (SMERC) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a visiting researcher from 2014 to 2015. He has been at Ontario Tech University (ONTechU) as a post-doc researcher between 2017-2020. He participates in national and international projects. His research interests include smart grids, electric vehicles, home energy management systems, and renewable energy systems.

Murat Kuzlu

Murat Kuzlu joined Old Dominion University (ODU) of Electrical Engineering Technology Department as an Assistant Professor in 2018. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering in 2001, 2004, and 2010, respectively. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a Global Network Product Support Engineer at Nortel Networks, Turkey. In 2006, he joined the Energy Institute of TUBITAK-MAM (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey-Marmara Research Center), where he worked as a senior researcher. Before joining ODU, he worked as a Research Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Institute. His research interests include smart grids, demand response, smart metering systems (AMR, AMI, AMM), home and building energy management systems, co-simulation, wireless communication, and embedded systems.

Manisa Pipattanasomporn

Manisa Pipattanasomporn is an associate professor of Smart Grid Research Unit (SGRU) at Chulalongkorn University, THAILAND and an adjunct faculty at Virginia Tech – Advanced Research Institute, USA. Since 2006, Dr. Pipattanasomporn has been working at Virginia Tech’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and from 2019, she joined Smart Grid Research Unit at Chulalongkorn University, THAILAND, as a research associate professor with the aim to develop an IoT-based smart campus. She is also a guest lecturer at the International School of Engineering (ISE), and Information and Communication Engineering (ICE), teaching students on IoT-related topics. Her research interests include smart grid, smart home, smart building, demand response, renewable energy integration, electric vehicles, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning with particular applications on energy savings, building-level load forecasting, and blockchain for peer-to-peer trading of solar electricity.