Heat pumps as important contributors to local demand-side management

This paper investigates the abilities of locally dispersed heat pumps connected to a thermal heat storage to perform demand-side management activities in an existing urban low voltage distribution grid in Germany. To do so, a model is developed using DiGSILENT PowerFactory to simulate the operation of a heating system incorporating an air-to-water heat pump connected to a thermal heat storage by performing a dynamic simulation. By applying two different modes of operation, a so called state-of-charge control and a demand-side management control, the weighted average transformer loading is calculated and compared. Results imply that heat pumps even at low penetration levels provide considerable load-shedding potentials and are hence able to reduce peak loads significantly. Moreover, the limiting effects of heat storage sizes are demonstrated. It is further shown, that lower ambient temperatures reduce the demand-side management potential of heat pumps.