An Economic Impact of Thermal Storage Air-conditioning Systems in Consideration of Electricity Market Prices

This paper evaluates the economic impact of the introduction of customer-owned Thermal Storage Air-conditioning (TSA) systems in a deregulated electricity market from the viewpoint of the Load Service Entity (LSE) and the whole-trade cost in the electricity market. Using market electricity demand and market clearing price (MCP) data based on the California Electricity Market 1999, our numerical results indicate that the LSE reduced the purchase cost of electricity at the MCP through the load managements of customers by operating TSA-systems instead of conventional Air-Conditioning (AC) systems. The introduction of customer-owned TSA-systems also reduced the variation of the MCP by shifting total market demand from on-peak to off-peak hours, and reduced the whole-trade cost in the electricity market. Thus, this paper provides the customer-owned TSA-systems contribution to the reductions in the purchase cost of the LSE and the whole-trade cost in the electricity market.