As the heat comes, people are turning on air conditioners in most of the US, but if you are like me, you always feel a little guilty about it. The previous generations were managed without air conditioning – do I really need it? And how bad is it to use all this electricity to cool in the hot world?
If I leave my air conditioner, I get very hot. But if everyone turns on their air conditioner at the same time, then the demand for electricity is spike, which can force power grid operators to activate something. The most expensive, and dirty, power plantSometimes they can ask and take the spikes too much grid Brownout or blackout,
Research I Recently published with a team of scholars makes me feel a little better, though. We have found that it is possible Coordinate the operation of a large number of home air-conditioning unitsBalancing the supply and demand on the power grid – and people without tolerating high temperatures inside their homes.
Study with these lines, using uses Air conditioner remote control To support the grid, for many years Discovered theoretical possibilities Like this. However, some approaches are displayed in practice and such high-value applications and never on this scale. The system we developed not only demonstrated the ability to balance the grid at a second time, but also proved that it was possible to do so without affecting the comfort of the residents.
Benefits include increasing the credibility of the power grid, making it easier for the grid to accept more renewable energy. Our goal is to change the air conditioner with a challenge to the power grid in an asset, which supports a change away from fossil fuels towards cleaner energy.
Adjustable equipment
My research focuses on batteries, solar panels and electric equipment – such as electric vehicles, water heaters, air conditioners and heat pumps – which can do Adjust yourself To Eat different amounts of energy at different times,
Originally, America Electric grid was built Transporting electricity from large power plants to customers’ homes and businesses. And originally, the power plants were large, centralized operations that were burnt to coal or natural gas, or the energy harvested by atomic reactions. These plants were usually always available and how much power they have generated in response to the customer’s demand, so the grid would be balanced between the power coming from the producers and the use by consumers.
But the grid has changed. there are More renewable energy sourceFrom which Shakti is not always available – such as a solar panel at night or wind turbine in a quiet days. And there are equipment and equipment I have studied. These new options, called “distributed energy resources”, where consumers need it, generate or store energy there – or adjust how much energy they are using in real time.
One aspect of the grid has not changed, however: not much storage has been done in the system. So every time you turn on a light, there is not enough electricity to supply everything for a moment that wants it correct: the grid requires an electric manufacturer to generate a little more power. And when you turn off a light, there is little too much: an electric manufacturer needs to ramp down.
The way power plants know what is required for real -time power adjustment by closely monitoring the grid frequency. The goal is to provide electricity in a constant frequency – 60 Hz – all the time. If more power is required, it is being produced, frequency drops and a power plant increase the output. If too much power is being produced, the frequency increases and a power plant production slightly slows down. These actions, a process called “frequency regulation”, occurs in a few seconds to keep the grid balanced.
This output flexibility, mainly from power plants, is important to keep lights for all.
Finding new options
I am interested in how the distributed energy resources can improve flexibility in the grid. They can release more energy, or less consumed, and help balance the grid, ensuring that the frequency remains near 60 Hz to balance the changing supply or demand, or less consumed the grid.
Some people fear that doing so may be aggressive, giving Someone outside your house The ability to control your battery or air conditioner. Therefore, we wanted to see if we can help balance the grid with frequency regulation using home air-conditioning units instead of power plants-impressing how the residents have used their equipment or how comfortable they are in their homes.
From 2019 to 2023, my group at the University of Michigan tried this approach in collaboration with researchers at Pekan Street Inc., Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, with money from the US Energy Department Advanced research project agency-energy,
We recruited 100 home owners in Austin, Texas, so that we could examine the real world of our system. All the houses had a forced cooling system in the entire house, which we were associated with Custom Control Board and Sensors, which the owners allowed us to install in our homes. This device lets us send instructions to air-conditioning units based on the frequency of the grid.
Before I tell the system how the system worked, I first need to explain how thermostats work. When people set the thermostats, they choose a temperature, and the thermostat turns on and off the air-conditioning compressor to maintain the air temperature within a small range around that set point. If the temperature is set at 68 degrees, the thermostat turns on the AC when the temperature is, and when it cools down, it turns off, 66.
Every few seconds, our system slightly changed the time of air-conditioning compressor switching for some of the 100 air conditioners, changing the total power consumption of the units. In this way, our small group of home air conditioners reacted to the grid, the way there would be a power plant – using more or low energy to balance the grid and keep the frequency near 60 Hz.
In addition, our system was designed to keep home temperature within the same small temperature range around the set point.
Testing of approach
We ran our system in four tests, every one hour. We got two encouraging results.
First, were capable of air conditioners Provide frequency regulation Accurately as traditional power plant. Therefore, we showed that air conditioners can play an important role in increasing grid flexibility. But perhaps even more important – at least in the context of encouraging people to participate in this type of system – we found that we were able to do so without affecting people’s comfort in their homes.
We found that house temperature No more than 1.6 Fahrenheit deviations From their scheduled point. If they became uncomfortable, the homeowners were allowed to override the control, but most did not. For most tests, we received zero overred requests. In the worst condition, we received over -override requests from two out of 100 houses in our tests.
In practice, such technology can be added Commercially available internet thermostatsIn exchange for credits on their energy bills, users can choose to join a service run by the thermostat company, their utility provider or any other third party.
The people could then turn on air conditioning in the heat of summer without this crime, knowing that they were helping the grid more reliable and more capable, more capable of adjusting renewable energy sources – without renouncing their own comfort in this process.
Johana MatthewAssociate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of MichiganThis article has been reinstated Conversation Under a Creative Commons License. read the Original article,
