Flexible Load Scheduling Methods for Load Aggregators

Four typical flexible load resources in the customer side, i.e., industrial users, central air-conditioning load, electric vehicles, and energy storage stations, are first considered and modelled in this paper. Then, we present the combined dispatching model for load aggregators involving four flexible load resources mentioned above. Our results of numerical experiments demonstrate that on one hand, four typical flexible load resources on the user side can be dispatched to decrease peak-load as well as increase valley-load. On the other hand, scheduling the load resources with energy storage properties operates in accordance with pre-instructions. Compared with independent scheduling, the combined scheduling of various flexible loads can achieve significant advantages of various load characteristics and strengthen the dispatching ability of load aggregators. The methodology proposed in this paper can effectively promote renewable energy integrations, improve grid stability, and then reduce operating costs of load aggregators.