Market price based control of electrical heating loads

Abstract

Smart metering systems were improved to support dynamic control of electric heating. This enables automatic control on the basis of day-ahead market prices, for example. The current remotely read electricity meters have a two-way data transfer connection, a load control facility, and often in tworate time of use tariff sites also some connected controllable load. The objective was to develop a load control model for harnessing the features of the current meter reading systems to better serve the needs for dynamic responses in the electricity market and networks. This paper describes the solution developed by Helen Electricity Network and its partners. Initial results of the first field tests of this system are described. In these the control is based on the hourly electricity prices of the day-ahead spot market.