Direct load control of central air conditioning systems using fuzzy optimization

A real-time two-way control of central air-conditioning chillers in wide area for demand response is proposed. The load of every customer participating in the demand response program is aggregated and controlled via the internet over a broadband network. A computationally efficient optimization approach is developed to calculate the load shedding ratio of every customer under control so that the load required to shed is achieved at every sampling interval. A certain degree of loosening for the constraints in optimization is allowed, leaving more flexibility to the optimization. Fuzzy linear programming is utilized to solve the optimization where the fuzzy inference system is utilized to define the constraints loosened in optimization. The minimum upper bound and maximum lower bound of the total load shed optimized through fuzzy linear programming are derived.