PRICE-BASED CONTROL OF FLEXIBLE LOADS FOR DISTRIBUTION NETWORK MANAGEMENT

Suitable control of flexible loads can significantly contribute to the secure and cost-efficient operation of distribution networks. Price-based control constitutes a promising alternative over traditional centralised approaches that face scalability and privacy limitations. However, naive application of price-based control leads to serious loss of diversity and demand concentration effects with adverse impacts on network constraints and losses. In order to mitigate these effects, three different measures are explored and compared in this paper. The design and performance of these measures depends on the operating properties of flexible loads; two different types are considered in this paper, namely loads with continuously adjustable power levels and loads with deferrable operation cycles. A case study on a test distribution feeder, with flexible electric vehicles and wet appliances used as representative examples of the above two flexible load types, supports the findings of this work, which was carried out in the frame of the LCNF project “Low Carbon London”.