the powermatcher - making the electricity grid smarter - aldo eisma

© 2013 IBM Corporation

The PowerMatcher –making the electricity grid smarter

EclipseCon Europe 2013

Aldo Eisma, Solution ArchitectIBM Global Business Services, Netherlands

© 2013 IBM Corporation2 The PowerMatcher – making the electricity grid smarter – ECE2013

The energy transition is the shift to sustainable economies through renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable development.

Solar

Wind

Solar

Wind

Hydroelectric

Solar

Nuclear

Wind

Energy Storage

Energy Storage

Energy Storage

UTILITY

Plug-in Vehicle

Consumer

Power Flow

Periodic Information Flow

Continuous Information Flow

Coal/Natural Gas

NuclearHydroelectric

UTILITY

Traditional Smart Grid

Coal/Natural Gas

So, what's so smart about the Smart Grid?


The percentage of renewable energy is growing quickly, but the power grid is not ready…

� Energy is not always generated when it is needed.

– Generation peak does not match consumption.

– Imbalance due to forecasting errors.

� Energy is not always generated where it is needed.

– Transportation losses

– Congestion

– Power quality

� This is threatening to destabilize power grids all

across Europe

2012: 28 % wind power 2020: 50 % wind powerDenmark France, Germany and Belgium

On the weekend of 15th and 16th of June,

Belgium experienced 14 hours of negative

electricity prices, with a three hour peak at

-200 €/MWh, when the average spot

market is usually around 50€/MWh.

Source: EcoGrid EU - A Prototype for European Smart Grids


Distribution & Operations… could predict & manage outagesbased on history of sensor & meter

data and environmental factors?

Enterprise Analytics… could make better businessdecisions using accurate dataacross all time horizons: past, present and future?

Government, Risk& Compliance…could reduce risk acrossthe enterprise and predictregulatory events beforethey become an issue?Network planning

… could optimize capital expenditure to maximize the value to your operations?

Customer service … could offer personalized guidance on energy usage patterns and incentives to reduce consumption?

Asset Management … could predict impending assetfailure & prevent costly downtime?

The energy transition drives a transformation of the industry


The approach of IBM for the transformation of distribution is to build and operate Virtual Power Plants, where predictive and reactive optimization is used to meet grid and trading objectives.

� The VPP locally aggregates flexible Distributed Energy Resources

– Combined Heat Power and Fuel Cells

– Heat pump and domestic water heating

– Electric vehicle

– Battery

– Household appliances

– …

Maximize trading flexibility

Min

imiz

e g

rid im

pa

ct

Source: Greenpeace


Our VPP concept uses PowerMatcher™ for reactive optimization – a multi-agent system that uses a real-time market-based approach

Source: Koen Kok, The PowerMatcher: Smart Coordination for the Smart Electricity Grid

http://dare.ubvu.vu.nl/bitstream/1871/43567/1/dissertation.pdf


The PowerMatcher matches supply with demand in a radial network, taking network constraints into account

� A bid is an expression of an agent’s intended instant demand and/or supply (negative demand) as a function of the price.

� The price is the amount to be paid by agents for demand (or paid to agents in case of supply) per volume unit.

� The auctioneer calculates the equilibrium price at which supply matches demand.

� A concentrator is an interior node which aggregates bids received from agents further down the grid.

� A concentrator may transform bid and price to satisfy local network constraints.

1 n

price updates

bid updates

1 n

price updates

bid updates

(Batte

ry d

em

and fu

nctio

n)


The PowerMatcher Information Protocol

� The PowerMatcher Information Protocol defines the standard.

� In 2012, Alliander, IBM and TNO initiated the development of a (draft) protocol standard and a reference implementation for PowerMatcher, as the basis for future projects.


Requirements for the PowerMatcher Reference Implementation

� Run anywhere in the grid, from home to server, as well as in a simulator environment.

� Scalable from simulator to large-scale deployments.

� Highly modular - assembly of PowerMatcher clusters from components.

� Dynamic model, supporting runtime updates of software and configuration.

� Vendor neutral, heterogeneous environments, open source-able.

OSGi™ - The Dynamic Module System for Java™


Component life cycle - auctioneer, concentrator and device agents are created and configured as OSGi managed factory components

@Component(name = ConcentratorComponent.COMPONENT_NAME,designateFactory = ConcentratorComponentConfiguration.class)

public class ConcentratorComponent extends Concentrator {

. . .


The PowerMatcher configuration system


Connecting an agent to its matcher is declarative and follows the “whiteboard” pattern

1. An adapter factory component is instantiated that tracks the PowerMatcher roles.

2. The agent registers the service for the agent role.

3. The matcher registers the service for the matcher role.

4. The adapter factory connects agents to matchers, filtering on agent and matcher.

configuration properties.


Supporting multiple protocols and protocol implementations

� Is plug-and-play thanks to the OSGi service and component model and the application of the

whiteboard pattern.

� For example: wide-band and narrow-band messaging protocol and transport.


Distributed deployment is supported by the MQ Telemetry Transport publish/subscribe messaging protocol

See http://mqtt.org


OSGi configuration in a distributed deployment


Auxiliary whiteboard services

� Scalability

– Scheduling services – thread pool

� Simulations

– Time services – actual time versus simulated time

– Time acceleration

� …


Field test 2013-2014: Couperus Smart Grid, The Hague

� Couperus Ypenburg is a new development project of 300 highly energy efficient homes using ground-source heat pumps for heating and cooling.

� The PowerMatcher objective is to use the energy flexibility of the heat pumps to– compensate market imbalance of a small wind turbine park,– within the capacity constraints of the local grid,– without compromising the comfort of the home owner.

� See http://www.agentschapnl.nl/content/couperus-smart-grid


Couperus PowerMatcher data for 2013-04-17


PowerMatcher in the Flexiblepower Alliance Network

� The Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) is an open

industry alliance for the development and promotion of

semantic (de facto) standards, with respect to

communication of and communication with energy

consuming and producing devices for end users. These

standards will facilitate the emergence and use of energy

services, on a uniform, accessible and cost-effective

manner.

� See http://www.flexiblepower.org/


Thank you!