Pierluigi SIANO | IoT based methods and architectures for demand response in smart grids

This tutorial highlights and discusses different concepts and technologies such as Distributed Ledger Technology, Peer-to-Peer transactive energy exchanges and Local Energy Markets for achieving energy efficiency in modern transmission and distribution systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMAuElReNRY

Considering that the traditional centralized energy systems are no longer viable, peer-to-peer energy transactions based on DLT and transactive controllers in LEMs represent the most likely evolution for future smart grids, as confirmed by recent pilot projects. A crucial point for the use of DLT is the selection of a proper consensus protocol: as PoW consensus protocol is very energy demanding, new approaches such as PoS are needed. On these basis, a permissioned blockchain based architecture, using an adapted version of PoS as consensus protocol is proposed to achieve energy efficiency and sustainability. The concept of proof of energy has been proposed as a modification of the proof of stake protocol in order to increase the self-consumption ratio of prosumers, thus contributing to power losses reduction. A new designed and implemented TMI is proposed and described that can represent a baseline for a reference framework for blockchain-based TMI based on smart contracts that can be used to manage LEMs. The proposed infrastructure consists of three layers, namely: aggregator layer, communication layer and user layer. The aim of the first layer is to manage the TMP, which is based on the Pub/Sub servers, the Certified Smart Meters and the Analytics Component. The second layer uses Internet Cloud to communicate among the different agents. The third layer consists of an HEM, which lets active users and prosumers to access the TMP. It should be pointed out that different challenges should be addressed by future research activities in order to make P2P transactive energy exchanges and LEMs a reality. First of all, the preservation of privacy in blockchain-based architectures represents a research challenge and solutions to ensure the prosumer privacy by design should be researched. Even if P2P based solutions can exhibit better scalability than centralized ones, studies and real tests should be carried out to evaluate the scalability of blockchain based architectures when the number of prosumers significantly increases. Even though some solutions have been recently proposed to improve the scalability of blockchain based architectures, further researches are required to identify new methods for improving scalability. Also, standardization and interoperability issues need to be investigated when designing blockchain based architectures. Concerning LEMs, future research activities should be carried out to evaluate the impact of different markets and auction mechanisms on the power losses and technical constraints of distribution and transmission systems. In addition, different options for managing the interactions and mutual effects between LEMs and the wholesale market should be investigated, while new rules are necessary to regulate the interactions between DSOs and the TSO. Further researcher activities are also required to investigate the effects of transactive controllers on consumers’ behaviour and their willingness to take part in LEMs.

Pubblicato il 21 Luglio 2020 da SIANO Pierluigi