Hardware and Software Implementation of Decentralized Active Demand Response (DADR) System Supporting Primary Regulation

The concept of demand response (DR) is relatively well-known. There is an extensive literature on possible DR system services and evaluation of regulative potential, based on statistical analyses of data concerning loads suitable for provision of the service. Some of the presented concepts have been implemented in real applications. However, as far as the authors know, this paper presents the first attempt at an implementation of a decentralized active DR system (DADR), without communication between devices, in the form of a laboratory setup consisting 1000 devices enabling primary regulation support. The proposed implementation covers an original hardware design, a software platform for flexible system development, a laboratory arrangement enabling an objective assessment of the quality of service provided by the DADR system, as well as results of a pilot test in real power system. The practical realization of the DADR system is based on an earlier elaborated and theoretically investigated control algorithm, presented in previous papers.