Electric space heating scheduling for real-time explicit power control in active distribution networks

This paper presents a systematic approach for abstracting the flexibility of a building space heating system and using it within a composable framework for real-time explicit power control of microgrids and, more in general, active distribution networks. In particular, the proposed approach is developed within the context of a previously defined microgrid control framework, called COMMELEC, conceived for the explicit and real-time control of these specific networks. The designed control algorithm is totally independent from the need of a building model and allows exploiting the intrinsic thermal inertia for real-time control. The paper first discusses the general approach, then it proves its validity via dedicated simulations performed on specific case study composed by the CIGRE LV microgrid benchmark proposed by the Cigré TF C6.04.02.