Application of PSO to optimize the operation of electric water heaters for reserve provision

Power demand on average is increasing with time on a global scale. This becomes a challenge to meet because of negative impacts like global warming due to increased emission of greenhouse gases and increased operating costs of the fossil fuel-based generation. Of late, a lot of research has been conducted on Demand Side Management (DSM) programs, which try to adjust quantities from the load-side in order to curtail or shift demand. Using DSM, controllable loads can also become providers of ancillary services, in which case the consumers become “prosumers”. This paper introduces an algorithm based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to optimize the operation of water heaters (WHs) to provide synchronous reserve. The developed algorithm is applied to two test systems including WHs and the results show substantial savings in terms of operating costs from the independent system operator (ISO) point of view, without affecting the consumers´ satisfaction. The developed approach will not only ensure an inexpensive mean of providing synchronous reserve but will also be environmentally friendly.