Generalized aggregation and coordination of residential loads in a smart community

Flexibility from residential loads presents an enormous potential to provide various services to the smart grid. In this paper, we propose a unified hierarchical framework for aggregation and coordination of various residential loads in a smart community, such as Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs), Distributed Energy Storages (DESs), residential Pool Pumps (PPs), and Electric Vehicles (EVs). A central idea of this framework is a virtual battery model, which provides a simple and intuitive tool to aggregate the flexibility of distributed residential loads. Moreover, a multi-stage Nash-bargaining-based coordination strategy is proposed to coordinate different aggregations of flexible loads for demand response. Case studies are provided to demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed framework and coordination strategy in managing peak power demand in a smart residential community.