A hierarchical architecture for an energy management system

Abstract

This paper introduces an innovative energy management system architecture for Smart Grids, designed in the European 7th framework program project e-balance. The architecture is hierarchical and fractal-like, which results in better scalability and reuse of algorithms and programming code for energy management. It supports both micro-grids and distributed energy resources. The system is structured into two main parts -the communication platform and the energy management platform. The former provides a common data exchange layer, while the latter provides the local energy management logic, currently supporting energy balancing and grid resilience services. The system is being deployed in two pilots: in Portugal and in the Netherlands, where use cases on energy balancing, grid monitoring and grid reliability will be demonstrated.

Balancing energy production and consumption in energy efficient neighborhoods

“…Whereas most of the research is simulation-based, our work does not only describe an algorithm, but also an implementation that is deployed and evaluated in a field test. For this we follow the architecture as presented in [14]. Lessons learned from recent field tests [10] were followed to ensure a successful implementation.…”

“…The management units (MU) are the core of the e-balance system architecture as shown in Fig. 1 [14]. These MUs are deployed at the different levels of the architecture.…”