Understanding the Impact of Electric Water Heater Control on the Grid

Electric water heaters (EWHs) are common in Vermont and are currently being controlled on a small scale to minimize loads at peak times. This paper presents a framework for understanding how increasing the EWH control in areas like Vermont will impact the grid and the customer's experience. We...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lunacek, Monte, Ruth, Mark, Jones, Wesley, Ding, Fei
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
ISO
Load modeling
Resistance heating
Voltage control
Voltage measurement
Water heating
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Electric water heaters (EWHs) are common in Vermont and are currently being controlled on a small scale to minimize loads at peak times. This paper presents a framework for understanding how increasing the EWH control in areas like Vermont will impact the grid and the customer's experience. We report on a a case-study using on two Rutland, VT feeders with two different EWH control strategies, at multiple penetrations of EWH participation. We quantify the rebound, the implications on water temperature and customer satisfaction and, using a co-simulation framework, we also estimate the impact on the feeder voltage. Our results show that, with a large customer participation (75%), we can deduce the peak by as much as 25%, but there are trade-offs between customer satisfaction and the rebound effects on both energy use and voltage.
ISSN:1944-9933
DOI:10.1109/PESGM.2018.8586582