Reactive Power Demand Response for Distribution System with Neighboring Clusters of Building Multi-type Air-conditioners

Abstract

Recently, the technology of controlling the demand-side reactive power to stabilize a power distribution system has been attracting attention. Since building multi-type air-conditioners are widely installed in office buildings, they have the potential to participate in distribution system stabilization if they can fulfill the request of the reactive power demand response. This paper proposes a new approach of reactive power demand response using building multi-type air-conditioners in a cluster of neighboring office buildings near the feeder location where a voltage deviation problem has occurred. We define a set of operation modes for the active converter built-in each air-conditioner to inject/absorb the reactive power. Next, we propose a new method of reactive power allocation to each air-conditioner taking into account each air-conditioning load and comfort. An integrated simulator has been developed combining our model of air-conditioner's transient behaviors and a model of the standard urban distribution system. The simulation result has shown, for example, a neighboring cluster of 25 air-conditioners in 5 office buildings continued the aggregated reactive power injection of approximately 400kvar for 10 minutes while maintaining room-temperatures within the comfort range.