Distributed control strategies for high-penetration commercial-building-scale thermal storage

For the commercial building sector, the fraction of peak electric load due to cooling sometimes approaches 50%. Meeting this load can create severe problems for electric utilities. Building-scale thermal storage can turn this problem into a resource, allowing both a reduction of the peak demand on the electricity infrastructure, and the ability to absorb intermittent power production from renewable energy resources such as wind and solar PV. In this study, the effects of two types of distributed control of thermal storage resources are considered with respect to their effectiveness in load leveling and renewables uptake. It is found that both real-time pricing and stochastic control strategies can reduce peak loads substantially, and can react to the availability of renewable energy at the transmission level.