Simulating the Smart Grid

In our PowerTech2013 paper Simulating the Smart Grid we propose a meta-model for a complete view onto the Smart Grid.

Power systems face increased complexitiy because of developments leading to more interdependencies between the power system components. For example:

• The progress of ICT in the last decades allows new applications in the field of energy.
• With increasing energy production in small distributed and private plants, the power flow direction is no longer unidirectional, from power plants to endusers. The former consumers becomes a prosumers.
• Increased use of renewable energies makes the energy production less schedulable. Loads need to be stored or shifted in time. A high need for efficient storage possibilites is generated.
• The energy market has been liberalized what gives rise to new energy related products and services.

The Smart Grid as Agents operating on several layers of complex flow networks.

 Power systems, as we knew them, are geting smarter by use of ICT. Liberalization of power market is expected to increase efficiency and energy product variety. New developments enable new perspectives which further drive new developments - it is hard, sometimes impossible, to distinguish between the drivers and the outcomes of this process.

The make this highly complex system more comprehensive, we propose to view it as agents operating on different flow networks. The agents optimize their flow according their individual utility function. The rules for the different types of flow are resulting from the subsystem design.

The model is generic but as flows are a measurable quantities it is suitable for quantitative extensions.

M. Pöchacker, A. Sobe, W. Elmenreich: Simulating the Smart Grid, IEEE PowerTech2013, Grenoble, June, 2013.