Intelligent control of flexible loads for improving low voltage grids utilization

Denmark has a plan to increase the amount of renewable energy in the power system in the coming decades. The wind power penetration is scheduled to increase to more than 50% by 2020. To cope with the high amount of fluctuating production, large power system reinforcements would be desirable. In order to limit the need for reinforcements the smart grid concept is getting a lot of attention. As a part of the whole concept, an active demand response is expected from end-consumer´s units like heat pumps and electric vehicles. This paper looks into the challenge of controlling these units in an intelligent manner. A centralized control strategy is developed at the secondary substation level in order to maximize the grid utilization thereby reducing the need for grid reinforcements. The simulation results show that the control strategy allows heat pumps and electric vehicles to charge in a time-effective manner while respecting the grid codes.