Demand Response Application for the Reduction of System Heat Rate in a Small Isolated Power System with Significant Short Term Demand Variation

A demand response (DR) application for improving a power system's heat rate is analysed and simulated. It is proposed that the short cyclical high amplitude load of the in situ arc furnaces be attenuated by the dynamic curtailment of selected grouped commercial air conditioning (AC) loads. A dynamic electrical demand model for the aggregate electrical demand of large, diverse population of air-conditioned buildings is formulated and analysed. For a fictitious test population of air conditioned buildings, the developed model is employed to demonstrate the possible effect on the system demand profile that could be realized by the proposed DR strategy. Electrical energy production simulations are performed to quantify the improvement in average system heat rate and thus the reduction in energy production cost that would be achieved by the strategy.