Thermostat Controlled Loads Flexibility Assessment for Enabling Load Shifting – An Experimental Proof in a Low Voltage Grid

This paper investigates the usability of thermostat controlled domestic appliances for load shift in LV distribution grids. The proposed method uses refrigerators for the demonstration of adaptive load prediction to estimate its flexibility and perform scheduling based on load threshold limit. Two 1-week long experiments with real-time fridge measurements from 10 real households are conducted to observe the usability of domestic thermostat controlled loads in solving issues by load shift. The experimental results show that the total threshold crossing time is reduced by 37.48% with energy reduction by 17 kWh and an increase in the average cold chamber temperature by 1.7°C. The control flexibility of loads increases from 22.5% to 54% by bypassing their thermostat. Based on the results, we can conclude that thermostat controlled appliances can be used for load shifting without compromising the user comfort expressed by the temperature limits.