Real-Time MPC for Residential Building Water Heater Systems to Support the Electric Grid

The world of IoT (internet of things) is spawning new control options and decision making that has not been available before. This is providing a wealth of opportunities for transactive type controls and systems that can negotiate for a common goal. This paper discusses a transactive residential neighborhood with optimization at the home level utilizing a system of agents. The real-time optimization utilizes information and modeling to optimize heat pump water heater operation in occupied homes. Data is presented showing the performance of the optimization and conclusions are drawn on next steps for development.