Distributed Load Control Using Reliable Low-Data-Rate Power Line Communication

Many demand-response schemes fail because they inconvenience consumers or add unnecessary costs. When participating in a typical demand-response scheme, a consumer may be subjected to invasive control systems, communication systems, or data collection. These demand-response schemes can quickly lose their novelty and may annoy customers by curtailing availability of their appliances, such as electric water heaters or air conditioners. This paper demonstrates a self-organizing demand response scheme that uses power lines as a natural, “free” infrastructure for communication. The approach can shave peak demand substantially with no inconvenience to or attention from the user. Tailored signaling schemes and a custom application of low-data-rate power line communication (PLC) enable loads to reliably self-organize their demand. Field experiments with thermostatically-controlled loads in an actively occupied, 24-floor apartment building demonstrate the advantages of the low-data-rate PLC scheme for energy control.