A novel 4-level joint optimal dispatch for demand response of data centers with district autonomy realization

Data centers (DCs) are gradually becoming one of the world's largest energy consumers. Owing to their spatial-temporal transferable characteristics, DCs show great potential in demand response (DR) programs. Considering the difference in task delay sensitivity (TDS), an elaborate DR model of DCs is proposed in this work. Furthermore, to ensure the TDS requirement and relieve the data transmission pressure, TDS-based unit migration cost matrices are designed in this work. Given that most DR dispatch for DCs is conducted relying on a central dispatching center, which imposes critical requests for the reliability of the dispatching system. In this work, we establish a novel 4-level joint optimal dispatch model for the DC operator, where dispatching centers installed at each level integrate district information from bottom to top and conduct optimal task dispatch from top to bottom. Moreover, an innovative dispatch autonomy mechanism is designed to realize district autonomy in the case of dispatching center breakdowns. Finally, simulation results prove that the proposed 4-level joint optimal dispatch model has a positive effect on enhancing renewable energy accommodation and improving the economic benefits of the DC operator. More specifically, by applying the proposed 4-level joint optimal dispatch model, the DCO's total cost is decreased by 32.25% in comparison with the result of no DR participation. It also proves that our designed dispatch autonomy mechanism can achieve district autonomy under the breakdown of dispatching centers at any level.