Predictive control of demand side units participating in the primary frequency reserve market

We consider an aggregator controlling a mixed portfolio of conventional power generators and demand side units. The generators are controllable within certain power and ramp limitations while the demand side units are characterized by flexible consumptions and therefore can be treated as energy storages of limited capacity.We address the problem of reducing the load on the conventional generators by letting the flexible consumers participate in the provision of primary frequency reserve. In particular, it is desired that the flexible consumers compensate for rapid grid frequency changes. In this work, we design an aggregator control strategy based on closed-loop model predictive control. The controller is able to mobilize the flexible consumers ahead of time such that we are able to reduce the load on the conventional generators by more extensive use of the demand side units.