Ramping Rate Flexibility of Residential HVAC Loads

Residential air conditioners (ACs), refrigeration units, and forced air heating loads are candidates for providing ancillary services to the grid. Motivated by the need for resources with high ramping rate capability, we investigate the ramping rate flexibility of such loads and show that a collection of residential heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) loads can provide regulating reserve service with certain ramping rate bound that is a result of enforcing a no-short-cycling requirement. A load is called short-cycled if it is switched on and off quicker than a certain allowed time. We support our proposed bounds and theorems with illustrative simulations.