PFI:BIC - Energy Smart Community - Leveraging Virtual Storage to Turn Advanced Metering Infrastructure into a Smart Service System

智能电表近乎实时地测量用电量，已经在美国超过40%的家庭中安装了，但减少电费、减少发电能力、减少温室气体排放和建设一个更注重能源的社会的承诺尚未实现。这一创新伙伴关系：建设创新能力(PFI：BIC)项目旨在打造下一代住宅能源市场，降低消费者的成本，提高电网的灵活性，整合所有类型和规模的可再生能源--屋顶太阳能到大型风电场--同时提高电力输送的稳定性。该项目将测试在单个智能电表中添加可充电电池(电存储)是否会将这些潜在的好处变成现实。这项研究利用了一个新的能源智能社区(ESC)，该社区由12,000个智能电表和一个无线数据网络组成，部署在纽约州伊萨卡地区，以响应纽约州S改革能源愿景战略。配备智能电表的1.2万户家庭网络将成为这一项目的试验床。研究人员将与主要合作伙伴合作，积极让住宅客户参与智能服务系统的设计，并让消费者参与虚拟存储系统的测试和优化。智能服务系统将控制电池何时充电(从电网购买电力)和何时放电(避免从电网购买电力)，从而为消费者实现迄今尚未实现的节省，同时创造潜在的新商机，减少温室气体排放。由此产生的智能服务系统将非常畅销，并可随时转移到美国和世界各地的其他社区和公用事业公司。这个项目是一个综合性的合作，这在大学里是不常见的。它与受监管的公用事业公司、营利性公司、风险投资者、住宅社区成员和政府机构合作，共同致力于将解决方案大规模推向市场。该团队将开发智能服务系统基础设施，使被认为对21世纪配电至关重要的零售能源市场出现。该项目的一个特点是使用计算机模型来模拟住宅电池，这种电池可以是独立的，也可以是电动汽车内的，研究人员可以测试大多数住宅拥有电池的情况，而不需要购买和安装电池的成本或挑战。少数家庭将配备真正的电池，以确保计算机模型准确地捕捉到真正的电池是如何工作的。五项跨学科和跨组织的任务将利用团队的技能集：(1)开发和测试一个独特的实验经济学平台，该平台将指导市场机制的设计，重点是配电系统中基于客户的分布式存储和发电能力；(2)在个人住宅级别设计、实施和测试完全仪表化、具有控制和通信能力的原型智能服务系统；(3)开发虚拟存储模拟建模工具，以集成到ESC高级计量基础设施(智能电表)中，以低成本实现不同时变率场景的有效测试，(4)设计、实施和测试并分析跨学科调查和焦点小组的努力，以了解、参与和收集消费者的反馈，以及(5)开展客户选择和消费者激励研究。牵头机构是康奈尔大学及其单位阿特金森可持续未来中心，Civil&Amp；环境工程、电气和计算机工程、通信、自然资源、应用经济和管理以及信息科学(学术非营利性)。主要合作伙伴是：AVANGRID公司(纽黑文，CT，大型企业)、宝马北美公司(新泽西州伍德克里夫湖，大型企业)、SolarCity(加州圣马特奥，大型企业)和康奈尔合作扩展-汤普金斯郡(伊萨卡，纽约州，非营利性组织)。Distributed Sun(华盛顿特区，小型企业)是一个更广泛的合作伙伴。

Smart meters, which measure electricity use in near real-time, have been installed in more than 40% of homes in the United States, yet the promises of smaller electric bills, reduced electric generation capacity, greenhouse gas reductions, and a more energy-engaged society, have yet to materialize. This Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity (PFI:BIC) project seeks to enable a next generation residential energy market that will reduce consumers' costs, increase the flexibility of the electric grid to integrate renewable energy of all types and sizes -- roof top solar to large scale wind farms -- while increasing the robustness of electricity delivery. This project will test whether adding rechargeable batteries (electric storage) to individual smart meters will turn these potential benefits into reality. This research leverages a new Energy Smart Community (ESC), comprised of 12,000 smart meters and a wireless data network in the Ithaca NY area deployed in response to New York State?s Reforming the Energy Vision strategy. The network of 12 thousand homes equipped with smart meters will become the test bed for this project. Researchers, working with the primary partners, will actively engage residential customers in the design of the smart service system and involve consumers in the testing and optimization of the virtual storage systems. A smart service system will control when the battery charges (purchases electricity from the grid) and when it discharges (avoiding purchasing electricity from the grid) allowing the thus far unrealized savings for consumers, while creating potential new business opportunities and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The resulting smart service system will be highly marketable and readily transferable to other communities and utilities throughout the United States and the world. This project is an integrated collaboration that is uncommon for universities. It engages a regulated utility, for-profit corporations, venture investors, residential community members and government agencies with a shared intent to bring solutions to the market at scale. This team will develop the smart service system infrastructure that will allow the retail energy market considered crucial to 21st century power distribution, to emerge. A signature of this project is the use of computer models to simulate residential batteries, which may be either stand-alone or contained within an electric vehicle, allowing researchers to test situations where most residential homes have a battery without the cost or challenges of purchasing and installing them. A small number of homes will be outfitted with real batteries to ensure the computer models accurately capture how real batteries function. Five cross-disciplinary and cross-organizational tasks will leverage the team's skill sets: (1) Develop and test a unique experimental economics platform that will guide the design of market mechanisms that focus on customer-based distributed storage and generation capacity in electricity distribution systems, (2) Design, implement, and test a fully instrumented, control and communication capable, prototype smart service system at the individual residence level, (3) Develop virtual storage simulation modeling tools to integrate into the ESC advanced metering infrastructure (smart meters) to enable the efficient testing of different time-varying rate scenarios at low cost, (4) Design, implement, and analyze cross-disciplinary survey and focus group efforts to understand, engage, and collect feedback from the consumer, and (5) Carry out customer choice and consumer incentivization research.The lead institution is Cornell University with its units the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Communications, Natural Resources, Applied Economics and Management, and Information Science (academic non-profit). Primary Partners are: AVANGRID, Inc. (New Haven CT, large business), BMW North America (Woodcliff Lake NJ, large business), SolarCity (San Mateo CA, large business) and Cornell Cooperative Extension -Tompkins County (Ithaca NY, non-profit). Distributed Sun (Washington DC, small business) is a broader-context partner.