Local Load Control
In principle, any appliance that operates to a duty cycle (such as industrial or domestic air conditioners, water heaters, heat pumps and refrigeration) could be used to provide a constant and reliable grid balancing service by timing their duty cycles in response to system load.
Because it is possible to measure grid frequency from any power outlet on the grid, it is possible to design controllers for electrical appliances that detect any frequency imbalance in real time. Dynamic-demand enabled appliances would react to this same signal. When the frequency decreases they would be more likely to switch off, reducing the load on the grid and helping to restore the balance. When the frequency increases past the standard, they would be more likely to switch on, using up the excess power. Obviously, the controller must also ensure that at no point does the appliance stray out of its acceptable operating range. As line frequency is directly related to the speed of rotation of generators on the system, millions of such devices acting together would act like a huge, fast-reacting peaking power plant.
Read more about this topic: Dynamic Demand (electric Power)
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