The impact of providing frequency regulation service to power grids on indoor environment control and dedicated test signals for buildings

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HVAC), at demand side, have been regarded increasingly as promising candidates to provide frequency regulation service to smart power grids. To assess the performance of the frequency regulation service provided by the demand side, dedicated frequency regulation test signals have been proposed that are relatively demanding and critical to power grids considering the quality of the service provided by the demand side. However, other practical signals might be demanding and critical to buildings at the demand side considering the impact of the service on indoor environment control. In this study, a set of criteria is proposed to assess the demanding level of frequency regulation signals to power grids and buildings at demand side, respectively. The impacts of providing frequency regulation service (to power grids) on indoor environment control are quantified when HVAC systems are following practical signals with different demanding levels to buildings. The results show that indoor air temperature can have a relatively large offset when HVAC systems are following frequency regulation signals demanding to buildings. In addition, the indoor air temperature offset will increase when regulation capacity provided increases. Two dedicated test signals for buildings are therefore recommended to verify the environment control performance of buildings when providing frequency regulation service to power grids. •Impact of frequency regulation (FR) service on indoor environment control is studied.•Criteria are proposed to assess demanding levels of FR signals to grids & buildings.•Indoor temperature has a large offset when following FR signals critical to buildings.•Indoor temperature offset will increase when regulation capacity provided increases.•Two dedicated test signals are proposed for indoor environment control assessment.