Three-stage day-ahead scheduling strategy for regional thermostatically controlled load aggregators

Abstract Thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) are regarded as having potential to participate in power grid regulation. This paper proposes a scheduling strategy with three-stage optimization for regional aggregators jointly participating in day-ahead scheduling to support demand response. The first stage is on the profit of aggregators and peak load of the grid. The line loss and voltage deviation of regulation are considered to ensure stable operation of the power grid at the second stage, which guarantees the fairness of the regulation and the comfort of users. A single temperature adjustment strategy is used to control TCLs to maximize the response potential in the third stage. Finally, digital simulation based on the IEEE 33-bus distribution network system proves that the proposed three-stage scheduling strategy can keep the voltage deviation within ± 5% in different situations. In addition, the Gini coefficient of distribution increases by 20% and the predicted percentage of dissatisfied is 48% lower than those without distribution.