Improved RC Model of Air Conditioning Load–A Case Study

Accurate and yet simple modeling of an air conditioning load is becoming import in today’s power system operation during the hot summer period. Due to its flexibility, an aggregation of AC loads can potentially provide a host of grid services, in addition to conventional peak load and cold load pickup management. This article proposes an improvement of the commonly used first-order RC model by taking into account the outdoor temperature dependency of the power consumption and coefficient of performance. This modified model is tested in a case study after deriving the model parameters from the manufacturer data sheet and high-resolution measurements. Its accuracy is compared to actual recordings under different weather and temperature set points. Electricity bill minimization through air conditioning control illustrates the customer-side use of the model.