Optimal strategy for domestic electric water heaters based on virtual energy storage characteristics

Characteristic of virtual energy storage can be found by controlling electric water heaters, which play a role similar to a battery in the grid. Virtual energy storage model is built by discretization and linearization of classic equivalent thermal parameter model. Virtual state of charge queue strategy is proposed to achieve unified control of different electric water heater types and users' needs at the same time. Compared with traditional temperature state queue strategy, this strategy proposed solved load fluctuations caused by adjusting setting. The simulation verifies feasibility and effectiveness of strategy proposed, and it can be found that the cost of maintaining load diversity is sacrificing response speed and amplitude control.