Aggregated Modeling of Massive Heterogeneous Building HVAC Loads for Demand Response: A Fluid Dynamics Perspective

The aggregation of massive heterogeneous building HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) loads is essential for enhancing the flexibility of power grids in demand response contexts. However, practical challenges such as unavailability of load parameters and sensor update delays significantly hinder the development of accurate aggregation models. To this end, this letter introduces a novel fluid dynamics perspective to model the HVAC aggregation behavior under more realistic scenarios that account for these practical issues. A novel analogy is established to treat the HVAC population as a fluid system, enabling the aggregation dynamics to be intuitively captured through wellestablished fluid phenomena. Building on this perspective, a 2-D advection-diffusion-reaction (ADR) equation-based aggregation model is developed. Case studies demonstrate that the proposed model can accurately predict the aggregated power variation under these realistic scenarios. In addition, control strategies guided by this model can accurately track the reference load regulation signal, with an average relative error of less than 2%.