Development of an HVAC Load Model for Aggregates of Homes

The goal of residential load management is to manipulate the electricity demand of a group of consumers to match some desired shape. Effective load management needs two types of controls: systemic and local. Systemic control manipulates the aggregate power by signaling the consumers. Local control determines how the power consumer reacts to the signals. I present a price responsive intelligent thermostat for use in local load management. Further, I explore two types of systemic control using electricity price as the control variable. The first approach is to identify the system using a low order model and apply traditional control techniques. The second approach makes use of game theory to auction the electricity to the consumers. Both methods enable reliable and robust high resolution load management.