A voltage based communication-free demand response controller

Demand response (DR) is the promising feature in smart grids to enable the consumers’ active participation in scheduling the overall residential demand to avoid voltage violations during peak hours. Usually, DR strategies are implemented using centralized control schemes which require extensive communication infrastructure. However, this paper proposes a decentralized DR strategy. The proposed controller compares the voltage at the point of control (POC) with a preset reference voltage to adjust the power consumption of several residential loads such as electric vehicle, air conditioner, water heater, and clothes dryer while taking users’ requirements into account. In addition, a controller is provided with the function to assign priority levels to these loads if needed. A test distribution system having 18 nodes, where each node has 60 houses, is used to validate the proposed controller. Furthermore, the controller is tested under light and heavy loading conditions. The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed controller and its ability to mitigate voltage drops during peak hours.