The ENCOURAGE ICT architecture for heterogeneous smart grids

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2015

In the context of Smart Grids and Internet of Things (IoT) Systems, distributed monitoring and actuation through Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) is fundamental to control the energy usage in buildings. Moreover, the realization of algorithms for the optimization of the energy consumption is of paramount importance. This paper presents a loosely coupled integration between a flexible management framework for WSANs, namely the IGMF (Intra-Grid Management Framework), and a Dynamic Energy Scheduler with local control on sensors and actuators, namely the ITESS (IoTLAB Energy Scheduling System). The integrated system allows the users to manage whole buildings applying Dynamic Energy Schedulers for different environments.

2012 IEEE International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology (ISSST), 2012

Electricity consumption in homes has been steadily increasing for the last few decades. This trend presents some problems for utilities, for customers, and for the environment. The existing metering systems have significant shortcomings when provisioning the adequate real-time information on the consumption, the micro generation, and the energy storage (particularly, in electric vehicles). They are also not prepared to handle the costs in a context of dynamic pricing, which depends on the generation mix. The electric grid of the futurethe Smart Gridwill need to go beyond the home meters, and zoom in on individual appliances" consumption readings. On one hand, customers (who may also be "prosumers"that is, simultaneously producers and consumers), generally have a lack of information regarding their appliances and regarding the behaviors they need to adopt in order to lower energy consumption. They also lack the knowledge of the real economic impact of the energy consumed, generated or stored at each moment. One the other hand, the distribution or transmission system operators are often facing disturbances in their grids because they cannot predict precisely the output of many renewable energy sourceswhich are mostly intermittent resourcesand, in parallel, predict or influence the consumption of their customers. Inefficiency thus arises in the use of resources. In this context, the aim of the thesis is to create an architecture proposal for an intelligent and autonomous demand-responsive energy management systemthe Energy Boxbased on a fully interactive Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure, the main purpose of which is to help end-users achieve energy savings and cost reductions, without loss of quality in the energy services provided. The cooperation between a smart-home and a smart-grid is a promising approach which, with the help of ICT, can fully unleash the capabilities of the smart electricity network to provide energy services to end-users in a more efficient way.

2010 IEEE International Energy Conference, 2010

People of the world are now fully aware of the importance of measures against global warming. It raises high expectations for clean power generation and advanced technologies. In this regard, Smart Grid, which effectively controls supply and demand of electric power by information technology, is a leading tool for developing a "new town". Although many aspects of such new town have been observed recently and worth knowledge has been achieved, rarely can be found an article to make a comprehensive overview on smart grid and its related vision, therefore, in this paper a working definition is presented that will help to put in context the framework for better realization of smart grids.

Energy Smart House Architecture for a Smart Grid, 2011

Electricity consumption in homes has been steadily increasing for the last few decades. This trend presents some problems for utilities, for customers, and for the environment. The existing metering systems have significant shortcomings when provisioning the adequate real-time information on the consumption, the micro generation, and the energy storage (particularly, in electric vehicles). They are also not prepared to handle the costs in a context of dynamic pricing, which depends on the generation mix. The electric grid of the futurethe Smart Gridwill need to go beyond the home meters, and zoom in on individual appliances" consumption readings. On one hand, customers (who may also be "prosumers"that is, simultaneously producers and consumers), generally have a lack of information regarding their appliances and regarding the behaviors they need to adopt in order to lower energy consumption. They also lack the knowledge of the real economic impact of the energy consumed, generated or stored at each moment. One the other hand, the distribution or transmission system operators are often facing disturbances in their grids because they cannot predict precisely the output of many renewable energy sourceswhich are mostly intermittent resourcesand, in parallel, predict or influence the consumption of their customers. Inefficiency thus arises in the use of resources. In this context, the aim of the thesis is to create an architecture proposal for an intelligent and autonomous demand-responsive energy management systemthe Energy Boxbased on a fully interactive Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructure, the main purpose of which is to help end-users achieve energy savings and cost reductions, without loss of quality in the energy services provided. The cooperation between a smart-home and a smart-grid is a promising approach which, with the help of ICT, can fully unleash the capabilities of the smart electricity network to provide energy services to end-users in a more efficient way.

The scope of this paper is to address the evolution of distribution grid architectures following the widespread introduction of renewable energy sources. The increasing connection of distributed resources has a strong impact on the topology and the control functionality of the current distribution grids requiring the development of new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions with various degrees of adaptation of the monitoring, communication and control technologies. The costs of ICT based solutions need however to be taken into account, hence it is desirable to work with existing communication networks. The objective of the European FP7 project SmartC2Net in this regard is to enable robust smart grid control utilizing heterogeneous third party communication infrastructures.

2013

So far the worlds of building automation and power networks have co-existed electrically attached but without data interaction. In order to complete the smart-grid vision, we have to go further than remote metering, integrating services offered by the smart-buildings into the smart-grids' needs. In previous works we have dealt with the design of an harmonised unique data model and a real-time architecture and its communication platform for the smart grid. Upon this basis, we present here an integral approach to achieve the integration of smart buildings into the smart grid in a standard way by that harmonised unique data model on the common communication platform as normal services that may be orchestrated by the entities out of the building as if they were typical smart grid services. We detail two use-cases to illustrate some practical aspects of the protocol mapping and the orchestration of building automation services.

Intelligent Building Control Systems

Eco-Architecture V, 2014

The spread of diffuse energy generation systems such as photovoltaics and combined heat and power generators will convert buildings from sole energy consumers into energy prosumers, i.e. energy producers and consumers. This will involve a much more dynamical interaction between buildings and the energy grid. As a consequence, electric distribution networks will be required to coordinate the energy draw/supply in order to optimize the use of renewable energy sources and preserve the reliability of the energy dispatch system, thus becoming smart grids. Smart grids will be able to act as coordinators of energy flows between diffuse energy producers and consumers, but buildings will be mainly managed in order to minimize their interaction with energy grids, thus minimizing the volatility of energy supply/draw, thus they will integrate energy management systems aimed at taking advantage of locally generated energy. In fact, buildings will be required to locally generate as much energy as possible, towards a Zero Energy Building perspective. For this purpose they will exploit technologies able to modulate energy demand and production by a suitable design of the building. So how will buildings, and consequently the related architecture, evolve in order to achieve these goals? In this paper the present status of the art as well as building configurations, procedures and energy management strategies able to ensure the best integration of typical residential and office buildings into smart grids are analysed.

IET Conference Publications, 2009

Innovative technologies and concepts will emerge as we move towards a more dynamic, service-based, marketdriven infrastructure, where energy efficiency and savings can be facilitated by i nteractive distribution networks. A new g eneration of fully interactive Information and Communication Technologies ( ICT) infrastructure has to be developed to support the optimal exploitation of the changing, complex business processes and to enable the efficient functioning of the deregulated energy market for the benefit of citizens and businesses. The architecture of such distributed system landscapes must be designed and validated, standards need to be created and widely supported, and comprehensive, reliable IT applications will need to be implemented. The collaboration between a smart house and a smart grid is a promising approach which, with the help of ICT can fully unleash the capabilities of the smart electricity network.

2017 IEEE Manchester PowerTech, 2017

Changes in electricity markets, driven by the increased use of renewable energy resources and the active participation of consumers in managing their energy usage, creates a demand for new smart grid technologies and services. In this paper, we describe an architecture that has been developed within the EU-funded Nobel Grid project, integrating novel smart grid solutions and services to enable energy flexibility markets, with enhanced demand-response schemes and active prosumer participation. The architecture was developed using the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM) Framework from CEN-CENELEC-ETSI. In this way, the business context and use cases have been modelled, along with the necessary components, communication protocols and data models that are necessary to realise the Nobel Grid project's ambitious goals of a more open energy market.