Fundamental study on controllability of heat pump power consumption for fluctuated power compensation

In a small scale, local power grid, such as a microgrid, control of power consumption on the demand side is an effective solution for compensating unpredictable power fluctuations in the grid, since such control can reduce the capacity of energy storage systems which are generally expensive. Among the loads, heat pump is focused as a device which its power consumption may be controlled from the grid operator, because when the interval of the compensated power fluctuation by the heat pump is short enough, fluctuation of room or water temperatures would be kept small, thus users' convenience can be maintained. In this paper, experimental results of controlling the heat pump's power consumption are shown. The experiments were conducted to evaluate the chacteristics of the power consumption response to reference signals, and the response characteristics of the processed heat. Using the data of the response characteristics of the processed heat, evaluation of the fluctuation of the room temperature was done by simulation. By these analyses, the amplitude and the period of the power fluctuation which the heat pump can be used to compensate are shown.