Coordinated multi-strategy control of air-conditioning system with chilled water storage for dynamic photovoltaic tracking

With the increasing penetration of distributed photovoltaics (PV) and other renewable energy sources, the volatility and intermittency of power supply have intensified, further exacerbating the supply–demand imbalance. Air-conditioning system with chilled water storage exhibit high potential for flexible load regulation and thus are regarded as ideal carriers for mitigating PV output fluctuations. However, a single control strategy often fails to balance load reduction and fast response. This study experimentally investigates the impact of dynamically coupling multiple demand response (DR) strategies, which are based on the coordination between building thermal mass and chilled water storage, aiming to enhance the air-conditioning system's capability for dynamic and flexible load adjustment in PV utilization scenarios. By integrating multiple charging/discharging methods with building temperature regulation strategies and analyzing their coupling mechanism, a multi-strategy coordination framework is developed to enable dynamic power adjustment of the air-conditioning system and ensure effective PV power tracking. Experimental results demonstrate that this strategy avoids frequent on–off cycling of the compressor at the beginning of regulation while suppressing rebound effects after the DR event, all while maintaining a stable load reduction effect. In the tested PV tracking experiments, the highest self-consumption ratio (SCR) and self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) reached 93.9% and 94.4%, respectively. These findings offer insights into the regulation of chilled water air-conditioning systems in the context of PV integration, contributing to the advancement of building energy flexibility technologies.