Delivery of contracted energy flexibility from communities

This paper contributes to existing research on energy flexibility by introducing centralised and decentralised model-predictive control (MPC) strategies designed to deliver demand reductions over specific time periods for demand response based on real-time demand projections. The MPC strategies were evaluated with co-simulations of an English community fitted with heat pumps over three afternoons in January, March and November with a demand response event. Effects of dynamic and static electricity pricing on delivery of DR were analysed. In line with previous findings factors like seasonality and pricing were found to influence the flexibility potential of the community. Operational differences found between the centralised and decentralised MPC set-ups highlight importance of the control set-up for scalability and delivery of flexibility.