23,179 research outputs found
Dual Environmentalism: Demand Response Mechanisms in Wholesale and Retail Energy Markets
This note argues that a dual jurisdictional approach to demand response programming is better suited to mitigate environmental harms than an “either-or” regulatory model. Through an exploration of FERC’s authority over wholesale demand response, state authority over retail-level demand response, and implications for electricity and capacity markets arising out of the Court’s decision in FERC v. EPSA, this note will offer effective legal mechanisms for mitigating environmental costs, while fostering environmental benefits. The next section of this note analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of state and federal regulatory approaches to demand response in isolation.
Based on this assessment, this note suggests the policy mechanisms most conducive to environmentally-conscious electric energy regulation. This note concludes with a model regulatory scheme that utilizes demand response to mitigate global climate change and advance environmental sustainability
Customer Engagement Plans for Peak Load Reduction in Residential Smart Grids
In this paper, we propose and study the effectiveness of customer engagement
plans that clearly specify the amount of intervention in customer's load
settings by the grid operator for peak load reduction. We suggest two different
types of plans, including Constant Deviation Plans (CDPs) and Proportional
Deviation Plans (PDPs). We define an adjustable reference temperature for both
CDPs and PDPs to limit the output temperature of each thermostat load and to
control the number of devices eligible to participate in Demand Response
Program (DRP). We model thermostat loads as power throttling devices and design
algorithms to evaluate the impact of power throttling states and plan
parameters on peak load reduction. Based on the simulation results, we
recommend PDPs to the customers of a residential community with variable
thermostat set point preferences, while CDPs are suitable for customers with
similar thermostat set point preferences. If thermostat loads have multiple
power throttling states, customer engagement plans with less temperature
deviations from thermostat set points are recommended. Contrary to classical
ON/OFF control, higher temperature deviations are required to achieve similar
amount of peak load reduction. Several other interesting tradeoffs and useful
guidelines for designing mutually beneficial incentives for both the grid
operator and customers can also be identified
Incentive Design for Direct Load Control Programs
We study the problem of optimal incentive design for voluntary participation
of electricity customers in a Direct Load Scheduling (DLS) program, a new form
of Direct Load Control (DLC) based on a three way communication protocol
between customers, embedded controls in flexible appliances, and the central
entity in charge of the program. Participation decisions are made in real-time
on an event-based basis, with every customer that needs to use a flexible
appliance considering whether to join the program given current incentives.
Customers have different interpretations of the level of risk associated with
committing to pass over the control over the consumption schedule of their
devices to an operator, and these risk levels are only privately known. The
operator maximizes his expected profit of operating the DLS program by posting
the right participation incentives for different appliance types, in a publicly
available and dynamically updated table. Customers are then faced with the
dynamic decision making problem of whether to take the incentives and
participate or not. We define an optimization framework to determine the
profit-maximizing incentives for the operator. In doing so, we also investigate
the utility that the operator expects to gain from recruiting different types
of devices. These utilities also provide an upper-bound on the benefits that
can be attained from any type of demand response program.Comment: 51st Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and
Computing, 201
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