Potential of a Population of Domestic Heat Pumps to Provide Balancing Service

Abstract

This paper investigates the model of aggregated heat pumps as a source of the flexible load in Great Britain. A thermal model of a domestic heat pump was presented. A decentralised temperature control algorithm was proposed to control the building temperature, and heat pump’s ON and OFF cycles. Seven case studies were used to identify the suitable number of individual heat pump models that can be aggregated to accurately represent the projected number of heat pumps connected to the 2030 GB’s power system. The simulation results revealed that an aggregated model of 5,000 individual heat pumps was accurately representing the entire number of heat pumps in the Great Britain power system. Also, the power consumption of a group of heat pumps was examined in response to the grid frequency. Simulation results showed that the power consumption of aggregated heat pumps was successfully controlled in response to a frequency change. The controlled heat pumps reduced the dependency on the frequency service obtained by expensive peaking generators.

Keywords

• demand side response
• frequency control
• heat pumps