Control strategies of thermostatically controlled appliances in a competitive electricity market

This paper discusses setpoint-control strategies for thermostatically controlled appliances (TCAs) in a competitive electricity market, with the electric water heater load used as an example. By varying the TCA thermostat settings, the TCA power consumption can be shifted from the high-price period to the low-price period to reduce the peak-load and energy cost. Economic benefits and impacts on distribution feeder load shapes when applying different setpoint-control strategies are studied.