Flexibility, particularly in terms of reserve services, is an essential requirement of power systems with high penetration of renewable electrical generation, which can reduce undesirable curtailment and enable higher integration of clean electrical power from renewable generation. Reserve services are related to additional active power sources available to the grid operator in the form of either increased generation or demand reduction. There is increasing evidence that commercial buildings can provide such reserves. In this paper we present a Model Predictive Control approach to optimization of flexibility afforded by commercial buildings for the provision of reserve services, in particular for Short-Term Operating Reserve from the National Grid in the United Kingdom. This reserve scheme is only required during selected hours of the day and involves turning down consumption for a few hours at the request of the National Grid with a slow response time (≤ 5 minutes). Commercial buildings equipped with heat pumps and backup gas boilers are considered. The proposed robust Model Predictive Control framework enables commercial buildings to provide Short-Term Operating Reserve without compromising the comfort of the occupants. Simulation are performed with a high-fidelity building model derived from Energy Plus through the software OpenBuild including real market data. Results show that a commercial building can provide Short-Term Operating Reserve and yield an economic benefit in a robust manner, without violating the indoor comfort of occupants. CONFIDENTIAL. Limited circulation. For review only.
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