Three-phase grid supportive demand side management with appliance flexibility modelling

Flexibility from consumers is regarded as a powerful solution for power system operators to resolve operation limit violations in their networks. The research community has proposed plentiful demand side management applications, each having their own methodologies and objectives. Often, they rely on flexible appliances which have complex, time dependent constraints. Modelling those appliances correctly such that their constraints are taken into account in the optimisation of load schedules poses a challenge. Besides, demand side management applications often are not interfaced with the monitoring applications of the network operator, and as such cannot always resolve operation limit violations in an effective way. To overcome this, this paper presents the inclusion of advanced models for appliance flexibility within a universal three phase grid supportive demand side management approach applied to distribution networks. The aim is that, independently of what objective the demand side management application pursues, operation limit violations specified by the network operator can be resolved using the flexibility provided by appliances. The effectiveness is shown using a case study that is based on market scheduling for simultaneously mitigating over and under voltages.