Distributed frequency-preserving optimal load control

Abstract: Frequency control is traditionally done on the generation side. Recently we have formulated an optimal load control (OLC) problem and derived a load-side primary frequency control as a primal-dual solution to OLC. The load-side control rebalances power and resynchronize frequencies after a disturbance but cannot restore the nominal frequency. In this paper we modify OLC and derive from it a frequency-preserving load-side control that rebalances power and restores the nominal frequency after a disturbance. Unlike the generation-side secondary frequency control that is centralized, our load-side control only requires each bus to communicate a Lagrange multiplier with its neighbors. We prove that such a distributed load-side control is globally asymptotically stable and illustrate its convergence with simulation