Benefits of smart control of hybrid heat pumps: an analysis of field trial data
Author(s)
Sun, Mingyang
Djapic, Predrag
Aunedi, Marko
Pudjianto, Danny
Strbac, Goran
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Smart hybrid heat pumps have the capability to perform smart switching between electricity and gas by employing a fully-optimized control technology with predictive demand-side management to automatically use the most cost-effective heating mode across time. This enables a mechanism for delivering flexible demand-side response in a domestic setting. This paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of the fine-grained data collected during the world’s first sizable field trial of smart hybrid heat pumps to present the benefits of the smart control technology. More specifically, a novel flexibility quantification framework is proposed to estimate the capability of heat pump demand shifting based on preheating. Within the proposed framework, accurate estimation of baseline heat demand during the days with interventions is fundamentally critical for understanding the effectiveness of smart control. Furthermore, diversity of heat pump demand is quantified across different numbers of households as an important input into electricity distribution network planning. Finally, the observed values of the Coefficient of Performance (COP) have been analyzed to demonstrate that the smart control can optimize the heat pump operation while taking into account a variety of parameters including the heat pump output water temperature, therefore delivering higher average COP values by maximizing the operating efficiency of the heat pump. Finally, the results of the whole-system assessment of smart hybrid heat pumps demonstrate that the system value of smart control is between 2.1 and 5.3 £ bn/year.
Date Issued
2019-08-01
Date Acceptance
2019-04-15
Citation
Applied Energy, 2019, 247, pp.525-536
ISSN
0306-2619
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
525
End Page
536
Journal / Book Title
Applied Energy
Volume
247
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Subjects
09 Engineering
14 Economics
Energy
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-04-19