Enhancing Grid Stability and Reliability With Grid-Supportive Loads: Implementation, Analysis, and Hardware Testing in a Residential Refrigerator

Grid-supportive loads (GSLs) are end-use loads with advanced controls that can autonomously adjust their power in response to grid frequency and voltage to improve grid stability during contingency events. Unlike load control methods in conventional demand response, GSLs aim to autonomously adjust the load in a transient time frame with only a local measurement of the grid voltage and frequency. In this paper, we propose a GSL control method in a residential refrigerator with a variable-speed drive. Using the load characteristics of the compressor, the proposed GSL controller adjusts the speed reference of the compressor to control the load power. The performance of the proposed GSL controller is verified by experiments with a residential refrigerator.