Assessing the demand flexibility of storage-integrated heat pumps: A heating Hardware-In-the-Loop approach

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Rae, Callum and Bhagavathy, Sivapriya and Thorpe, Ben; (2025) Assessing the demand flexibility of storage-integrated heat pumps: A heating Hardware-In-the-Loop approach. In: 2025 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference Europe (ISGT Europe). IEEE, MLT, pp. 1-5. ISBN 979-8-3315-2503-3 (https://doi.org/10.1109/isgteurope64741.2025.11305...)

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Abstract

As the stress placed on electricity supply infrastructure by the ongoing electrification of heat (and transport) grows, as does the need for demand flexibility. However, the quantification of such flexibility in a real-world setting presents numerous challenges and uncertainties, particularly at a domestic scale. Heating Hardware-in-the-Loop (HHIL) allows for the rapid testing emerging heating solutions under a range of representative real-world scenarios. This paper presents a novel HHIL test system, developed to assess the load-shifting potential of a prototype Phase Change Material-coupled ground source heat pump. The system was found to successfully emulate real-world heating demand profiles and control prototype operation effectively. Test results show that the prototype can implement load shifting of between 39 and 139 minutes with minimal impact on heat delivery compared to a notional base case. These results illustrate the ability of HHIL systems to help accelerate the development of innovative low-carbon heating solutions.

ORCID iDs

Rae, Callum ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0271-8238, Bhagavathy, Sivapriya ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3200-4308 and Thorpe, Ben;
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