Load management for idle capacity of power grids

Abstract

A major issue hampering a rapid substitution of fossil fuels by electricity from sustainable sources is the fear of congestion of the power grid and of associated costs of their reinforcement. The conventional approach prevents any rapid raise of electricity demand by encouraging other energy carriers and sector coupling. However, no approach investigates the utilization of the full capacity of the power grid alone, which are kept idle to provide sufficient reserve for the case of a failure. Therefore, we test a load management approach designed to utilize this reserve capacity. We verify in this paper the correct functionality of the system made of a device manager for cost optimization of schedules and of a grid manager to enforce the respect of power limits of the grid. This novel approach contributes to reduce emission of greenhouse gases without grid reinforcement.