Towards Cooperative Grids: Sensor/Actuator Networks for Renewables Integration

Faced with an uncertain path forward to renewables portfolio standard (RPS) goals and the high cost of energy storage, we believe that deep demand side management must be a central strategy to achieve widespread penetration of renewable energy sources. We examine the variability of wind as a source of renewable, non-dispatchable energy and the loads that can be dispatched to match sources of this type. We identify two classes of dispatchable energy loads, and create models for these loads to match their consumption to the generation of energy sources, while introducing {\em slack}, a generalized measure of dispatchability of energy. From these load models, we examine a number of techniques and considerations for source-following loads, including the sensitivity of thermostat constraints and the effects of aggregating appliance populations. Our results show a home heater that is able to reduce energy consumption by over 50% while increasing the proportion of renewable energy consumed versus grid energy.