Assessing Frequency-Regulation Performance of Industrial Adjustable Loads Considering Communication Delays

Communication delay inevitably degrades the frequency regulation performance of industrial adjustable loads, yet existing studies often neglect its impact when quantifying their performance, this paper develops an integrated delay model incorporating processing, transmission, propagation, and queuing delays, and establishes a generator-load frequency response model that captures command delay. A performance ratio index is derived from the integral of frequency deviation to quantify the relative regulation effectiveness of load-side resources. To demonstrate its applicability, a market clearing model is formulated using performance-ratio-based capacity conversion. Case studies on the IEEE 39-bus system show that communication delay compresses the effective response window and reduces performance ratios, while fast-response loads remain competitive due to their higher equivalent regulation value. The proposed framework offers a practical approach for evaluating heterogeneous frequency regulation resources under realistic communication conditions.