Economic Benefits for Flexible Thermostatic Loads in Multi-area HVDC-connected Power Systems

This paper quantifies the economic benefits of flexible Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs) in a multi-area power system. The areas are connected via High Voltage Direct Current links. A distributed and non-disruptive control strategy manages the TCLs’ operation to effectively schedule their consumption and, simultaneously, maintain headroom for several ancillary services. The TCLs’ flexibility model is embedded in an optimal multi-area system scheduling model. The paper focuses on device-level metrics such as the annual cost savings obtained by single TCLs and compares these to system-level metrics e.g. system operation cost savings. Several case studies are built to assess key-drivers for TCLs’ benefits.