Demand side frequency regulation from commercial building HVAC systems: An experimental study

Demand side resources can be valuable for providing inexpensive ancillary services to the power grid. This paper present an experimental demonstration of providing frequency regulation from a commercial building Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. The experiments were conducted in Pugh Hall, a 40,000 sq. ft. commercial building located at the University of Florida. In this paper, we describe the steps required to make this possible, including control architecture, system identification, and control design. The field experiments demonstrate: 1. satisfactory frequency regulation service can be provided by the HVAC system without noticeable effect on the indoor climate, and 2. the ancillary services provided by this system passes the qualification criteria for participating in PJM Interconnection´s frequency regulation market.