Smart Energy Systems: Control, Communications, and Optimization

下一代能源系统将利用最新的信通技术，包括宽带有线和无线网络、传感器、数据收集和处理。它们将减少我们的碳足迹，提高基础设施成本效率，整合分布式发电、需求侧管理、储能元件和灵活负载(例如建筑和电动汽车)等颠覆性技术，并让客户更多地参与其中。这将通过将现有的“能源丰富、控制贫乏、信息贫乏”的电网转变为“能源节俭、控制丰富、信息丰富”的系统来实现。其结果将是一个大规模的异质分布式系统，由数十万个间歇性来源、双向流动和一组弹性负载和存储元件组成。这个系统将与互联网有很多相似之处(也有一些惊人的不同)。*这项建议旨在充分利用互联网的经验(成功和失败)，解决下一代能源系统面临的几个根本挑战和系统问题。例如，互联网的健壮性来自其简单的分层架构和使用分布式控制机制来防止拥塞。互联网研究人员不得不为未知的东西进行设计，内容的生成和需求都是随机的，新的应用程序不断涌现，以测试互联网设计的健壮性。下一代能源系统具有类似的特点，即它将是高度分布式的，并且将包含更多的随机性来源，这使得稳健设计成为必要。*我们的长期目标是提出一种与传统兼容的控制和通信架构，并设计相关的协议和算法，使得能够在利用某些负载(例如，建筑物和电动汽车)的灵活性的同时，在配电网络中有效地集成可再生能源和能量存储。*(A)建模和分析不同应用领域的能量存储技术(例如，辅助服务，改善电能质量、太阳能/风能加固)。*(B)表征、量化和管理负载灵活性。*(C)建议和评估不同的控制和通信架构。*建议的结果将是调整、研究和运营下一代配电网络的新工具和机制。它们将极大地推动整个能源系统的最先进水平，并将是加拿大和其他地方发展智能电网的关键。它们将帮助加拿大决策者在选择激励计划或补贴技术时做出明智的决定。该提案还将提供极好的博士水平的HQP培训机会。**

The next generation of energy systems will harness the latest ICT technologies including broadband wireline and wireless networks, sensors, data collection and processing. They will reduce our carbon footprint, improve infrastructure cost efficiency, integrate disruptive technologies such as distributed generation, demand side management, energy storage elements, and flexible loads (e.g., buildings and electrical vehicles), and place the customers more 'in the loop'. This will be done by converting the existing grid which is 'energy rich, control poor, and information poor' into an 'energy frugal, control rich, and information rich' system. The result will be a large scale heterogeneous distributed system, made of hundreds of thousands intermittent sources, two way flows, and a set of elastic loads and storage elements.  This system will have a lot of similarities (and some striking differences) to the Internet. ***This proposal aims to address several of the fundamental challenges and system issues facing the next generation of energy systems by taking full advantage of the experiences (successes and failures) drawn from the Internet. As an example, the Internet's robustness comes from its simple layered architecture and the use of distributed control mechanisms to prevent congestion. Internet researchers have had to design for the unknown, both the 'generation' of content and the demands are random, and new applications regularly emerge to test the robustness of the Internet design. The next generation of energy systems has similar characteristics, i.e., it will be highly distributed and will contain many more sources of randomness making the need for a robust design a necessity.***Our long-term objective is to propose a legacy-compatible control and communication architecture and design the related protocols and algorithms that enable the efficient integration of renewables and energy storage in a distribution network while taking advantage of the flexibility of some loads (e.g., buildings and electrical vehicles).  We will do that by: ***(a) Modeling and analyzing energy storage technologies in different application areas (e.g., ancillary services, improving power quality, solar/wind firming).***(b) Characterizing, quantifying and managing load flexibility. ***(c) Proposing and evaluating different control and communication architectures.***The outcomes of the proposal will be new tools and mechanisms to size, study, and operate the next generation of distribution networks. They will significantly advance the state of the art on energy systems in general and will be key to the development of Smart Grids in Canada and elsewhere. They will help Canadian policy makers make informed decisions when selecting incentive programs or when subsidizing technologies. The proposal will also provide excellent HQP training opportunities at the PhD levels. **