Simulation of an Air-to-Water Heat Pump System to Evaluate the Impact of Demand-Side-Management Measures on Efficiency and Load-Shifting Potential

Increasing variable renewable electricity generation in Germany challenges the German electricity supply in terms of mismatch between supply and demand as well as grid stability. Demand side management (DSM), a portfolio of measures to improve the energy system on the consumption side, can contribute to the ability to cope with the upcoming challenges in the future smart power grid.[1] Currently, over 500 000 electrical compression heat pumps (HP) provide a potential for DSM in Germany.[2, 3, 4] Whereas static load shedding for heat pumps is state-of-the-art, concepts for dynamic load shifting still need to be developed. A variety of heat pump systems (HPS) and control strategies provide different potentials to shift loads. This simulation study has been performed to examine variations of a typical single-family-house HPS in terms of efficiency and DSM potential. Six scenarios for 2012 and six scenarios for 2030 are analyzed with varying buffer storage sizes, control strategies, and heat pump capacities. The prior condition for the realization of load shifting through thermal energy storage has been to prevent nominal room temperature changes. The presented results indicate that electrical heat pumps combined with buffer storage are suitable devices for DSM without violating the nominal room temperature. However, the load shifting caused an increased electricity consumption of up to 19%.