Multi-Sector Demand Management in Smart Cities

Abstract

Environmental concerns are on an all time high and can no longer be ignored. The majority of electricity is generated using fossil fuels, this is troublesome as fossil fuels are depleting off the face of the earth. Moreover, they contribute heavily to the harmful emissions affecting our environment. This has caused a global movement towards greener, more sustainable sources of electricity generation. The main concern with renewable sources of energy is their intermittent output. This could be dealt with through large amounts of operational flexibility and storage in the system. Traditional storage technologies are foreign to the electric system and require high initial and maintenance investments to ensure proper operation. This work aims to propose innovative ways to use resources that are readily connected to the electric system instead of introducing foreign storage technologies. Demand response is based on the presence of operational flexibility and/or energy storage ability by a specific electric load. There are several energy systems that are partially or fully fueled by electricity who could poses DR abilities through their own energy vectors. This would be directly reflected on their electricity consumption. Through controlling this process, these resources can be added to the existing electric DR resources in the system. This comes at approximately no additional costs. The idea is to allow different energy systems to join the DR fleet of the electric system through operational integration. This work presents a systematic approach to identifying additional DR resources that can be used to benefit the electric system. Four resources (wastewater treatment system, drinking water treatment system, building heating systems and public electric transportation system) are then chosen to highlight the potential of the proposed idea. Numerical models focusing on DR capacity were developed or chosen (based on availability) to be used in this work. The work shows results of independent operation of each resource as well as, an integrative operation of resources to benefit the system as a whole. The results obtained show an improvement in DR performance under operational integration as opposed to independent operation.