Model-free load control for high penetration of solar photovoltaic generation

Abstract

This paper presents a new model-free control (MFC) mechanism that enables the local distribution level circuit consumption of the photovoltaic (PV) generation by local building loads, in particular, distributed heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) units. The local consumption of PV generation will help minimize the impact of PV generation on the distribution grid, reduce the required battery storage capacity for PV penetration, and increase solar PV generation penetration levels. The proposed MFC approach with its corresponding intelligent controllers does not require any precise model for buildings, where a reliable modeling is a demanding task. Even when assuming the availability of a good model, the various building architectures would compromise the performance objectives of any model-based control strategy. The objective is to consume most of the PV generation locally while maintaining occupants comfort and physical constraints of HVAC units. That is, by enabling proper scheduling of responsive loads temporally and spatially to minimize the difference between demand and PV production, it would be possible to reduce voltage variations and two-way power flow. Computer simulations show promising results where a significant proportion of the PV generation can be consumed by building HVAC units with the help of intelligent control.

Dynamic Building Load Control to Facilitate High Penetration of Solar Photovoltaic Generation (Final Technical Report)

“…In contrast, MFC uses an ultra-local model (i.e., approximation) of the system that is estimated in real time. It circumvents the daunting task of deriving reliable building models and accounts for all the uncertainties and unknown weather disturbances and changes in occupancy pattern [147][148][149][150]. Thus, it is computationally efficient and easily deployable on small, embedded devices, and it can be implemented in real time or near-real time.…”

Energy saving for building heating via a simple and efficient model-free control design: First steps with computer simulations

“…Start with the most important feedback device in modelfree control, i.e., the intelligent proportional controller (see [21], and [13], [33]), or iP:…”

“…The large literature, that is already available on model-free control, explains why we have not incorporated any summary on this topic and on the related intelligent controllers. Any interested reader in an easy-tounderstand introduction is invited to look at [33] and [13].…”

Model-free control for VSC-based HVDC systems

“…It allows the synthesis of a simple controller of PID type, called intelligent-PID, or iPID. This control strategy has already been successfully applied to quite different electric systems in [6], [7], [8]. Reference [9] exhibits a rather complete bibliography of the numerous concrete accomplishments of model-free control in the world.…”