Predictive control of a domestic freezer for real-time demand response applications

Demand side management and demand response aim to maximize the efficiency of the electricity delivery process by exploiting the flexibility of customers. At residential level, demand response can be applied only to a limited number of appliances, through load management, due to user intervention or dedicated automated actions. One category of appliances which concur well with demand response is the thermostatically controlled appliances. They operate in cycles and maintain the temperature of a process around a set-point and within certain temperature limits. When demand response is applied, the thermostatically controlled appliance is utilized as an energy buffer and a temporary increase or decrease in power and energy consumption is induced. This work focuses on the application of demand response to the operation of a typical domestic freezer. Real-time predictive control models are developed for this application and are validated during practical experiments.