Power-controllable variable refrigerant flow system with flexibility value for demand response

With the increase of renewable energy sources in the power supply, the issues of balancing power supply and demand are becoming severe. Demand response, by altering the demand-side load state, has been proven as a good method to solve the supply and demand balance problem. Variable refrigerant flow system has great potential in demand-side loads and is poised to become the mainstay of demand response. However, the traditional temperature or compressor state control of variable refrigerant flow systems does not allow for better power regulation for the power system. To address this problem, this paper proposes a power-controllable variable refrigerant flow system with demand response flexibility value for power regulation. The demand response flexibility value is designed as a subjective indicator to satisfy the heterogeneous customer comfort requirement. The predictive mean vote as an objective indicator of customer comfort coordinates with the demand response flexibility value. A fuzzy control strategy for variable refrigerant flow systems is designed to balance power system requirements and customer comfort requirements. The experiment result demonstrates that the power-controllable variable refrigerant flow system can provide power regulation service to the power system with a maximum power regulation deviation of 3.67%. By guaranteeing consumer comfort, the higher the flexibility value, the shorter the consumer’s participation time in demand response. The demand response flexibility values can provide regulation configuration for demand response in practical engineering.