Assessment of a new constraint satisfaction problem based active demand control approach to address distribution network constraints

The requirement of electricity market reform in smart grid comprises power supply reliability, energy price stability, and environmental friendliness sustainability, which challenges network design and control activities from distribute network operator´s (DNO) perspective. Demand side management (DSM) is considered as one of the solutions for deferring network capacity reinforcement, increasing energy efficiency, addressing network constraints, and implementing low carbon energy strategies. In this study, a new real time active demand control approach is proposed to deal effectively with distribution network thermal constraints within an active network management system. The novelty consists in the application of a constraint satisfaction problem model in power flow management (PFM) to achieve DSM flexible demand objective. This approach implements DNO´s direct control of demand response (DR) via the curtailment of real power consumption from the contractual demand. The control performance is based on a contractual prioritisation and preferred control depth to obtain the desired objective function of curtailment minimisation. In the simulation of the DR-PFM presented, the network thermal overload problem is relieved effectively by this new approach. This new control approach has potential to play an important role in the development of autonomous control approaches in smart grid.