A multi-agent system providing demand response services from residential consumers

High share of distributed energy resources (DER) into power systems can significantly modify the net demand profile. Error forecasts of intermittent generation of renewable energy sources (RES) along with the current inelastic behavior of the consumption can provoke considerable network operational issues, such as frequency fluctuations and voltage imbalances. Increasing the noncontrollable DER penetration in network operation requires increased flexible and dispatchable generation capacity for balancing RES generation intermittency. Demand response mechanisms can be an efficient and less costly alternative for handling the grid issues posed by high RES penetration. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate enabling Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and operational tools for distributed demand management mechanism that allows consumers to participate in grid support without affecting their level of satisfaction. An actual household environment called Mas Roig and located in Llagostera, Spain is used to demonstrate and assess the ICT based demand response mechanism. The results of the implementation are presented and evaluated providing useful insights for a mass deployment of such mechanisms. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.