Load-Level Control Design for Demand Dispatch With Heterogeneous Flexible Loads

Over the past decade, there has been significant progress on the science of load control for the creation of virtual energy storage. This is an alternative to demand response, and it is termed demand dispatch. Distributed control is used to manage millions of flexible loads to modify the power consumption of the aggregation, which can be ramped up and down, just like discharging and charging a battery. A challenge with distributed control is heterogeneity of the population of loads, which complicates control at the aggregate level. It is shown in this article that additional control at each load in the population can result in a far aggregate model. The local control is designed to flatten resonances and produce approximately all-pass response. Analysis is based on mean-field control for the heterogeneous population; the mean-field model is only justified because of the additional local control introduced in this article. Theory and simulations indicate that the resulting input–output dynamics of the aggregate has a nearly flat input–output response: the behavior of an ideal, multi-GW battery system.