Usage of spot market prices prediction for demand side management

This paper discusses the issue of demand side management, in particular control of the output power of heat pumps based on the spot market electricity price. The main presumptions are the ability of controlled HVAC system to shift energy load on the customer's side and sufficient credibility of an energy price prognosis on the electricity provider's side. The paper first presents current situation in the Czech republic with electricity tariffs legislations, which have to be followed so that the proposed method is applicable in practice. It is shown that for successful implementation, it is required to have an energy load model, model of the accumulation as well as parameters of the heat pump. For the energy load model, statistical black box methods are used, while the other models are based on first principles. The models are together with the prediction of spot market price used within model predictive control framework resulting in cost savings higher than 10%.