Results of residential air conditioner testing in WECC

This paper summarizes the key results of testing work performed by three organizations (EPRI, SCE, and BPA) on a total of twenty seven air conditioning units in order to better understand and thus characterize their behavior for power system simulations. The diversity of the tested air conditioner units included sizes (tonnage), compressor technology (reciprocating and scroll), type of refrigerant (R-22 and R-410A), efficiencies (between 10 and 13 SEER), and vintage (new and old). A common test plan was developed by the three organizations. The tests were then performed independently by each of the three organizations. The EPRI work was sponsored by APS and SRP. This effort was part of the current load modeling effort going on in WECC under the load modeling task force. The key findings of this work are presented here together with a description of the testing methodology. All three organizations found very similar results despite testing a variety of different sizes and manufacturer units. The key results presented are associated with the stalling behavior of the units at different outdoor temperatures, the behavior of thermal overload tripping, contactor dropout, and the behavior of the units in response to different emulated types of system events.