| Abstract: | This paper studies the optimal control of a commercial building's thermostatic load during off-peak hours as an ancillary service to the power grid. It provides an algorithmic framework that commercial buildings can implement to cost-effectively increase their electricity demand at night while they are unoccupied, instead of using standard inflexible setpoint control. Consequently, there is minimal or no impact on user comfort, while the building manager gains an additional income stream from providing the ancillary service. By introducing a novel benefit-cost ratio of ancillary service payment to night-time price of electricity, we are able to study the building's capability to provide a service that is both useful to the power grid and profitable to the building manager. Numerical results show that there can be an economic incentive to participate even if the payment rate for the ancillary service is less than the price of electricity. |
