I-Corps: Agent Based Control of Assets in Distribution Energy Networks

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于解决能源系统中的重大挑战。未来的电网，通常被称为智能电网，预计将通过增加分布式发电、需求响应、传感和通信技术的集成而与当前的系统不同。随着分布式能源变得越来越普遍，并影响着电网的未来，电网的整体运行灵活性也在提高。这也意味着需要做出更多的控制决策。该方案为地理上分散的能源资源的协调提供了最优的协调方案。为不断增加的能源资源找到一个商业上可行的最佳协调解决方案，对于经济高效地发电和调度以及确保电网的可靠性至关重要。该项目特别关注冷链技术，解决分布式制冷系统的可扩展和灵活控制与协调；设想提出的解决方案和软件将最终用户预装的冰箱和冰柜变成一个集成的智能制冷系统，并显著提高其能源效率。I-Corps项目提供了一种新颖的分布式控制方法，解决了配电电网的重大运营挑战。今天，能源系统的控制主要是由中央计算和控制解决方案执行的。增加的进料测量（传感数据）导致应力增加和计算时间延长。因此，集中控制解决方案可能无法实时计算和应用。该项目为实时控制决策的分布式计算提供了全新的方法和软件。我们的研究为分布式能源的智能控制提供了一个很有前途的解决方案，它使各种组件与一个中心单元有效地交互和协调。本研究的关键前提是，如果以智能、预测和可扩展的方式进行协调，可以实时优化众多能源的运行，从而解决可扩展性问题。除了将提议的分布式控制方法扩展到实现可靠和成本效益的能源和需求侧管理之外，该项目还侧重于将提议的方法的更具体目标的扩展商业化，该方法旨在通过增强分布式协调来最大限度地降低冷链行业制冷系统的运营成本。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is in addressing a substantial challenge in energy systems. The future electric power grid, commonly referred to as the smart grid, is expected to differ from the current system by the increased integration of distributed generation, demand response and sensing and communication technologies. As distributed energy resources become more prevalent and shape the future of the electric power grid, the overall operational flexibility of the grid increases. This also means that more control decisions need to be made. This project provides an optimal coordination solution for coordinating geographically scattered energy resources. A commercially viable optimal coordination solution for ever increasing energy resources is crucial for cost efficient generation and dispatch of electricity and ensuring the reliability of the power grid. Specially, focusing on cold chain technologies, this project addresses scalable and flexible control and coordination of distributed refrigeration systems; it is envisioned that the proposed solution and software would turn end-users' pre-installed refrigerators and freezers into an integrated intelligent refrigeration system and significantly improve their energy efficiency.This I-Corps project provides a novel distributed control method that addresses a significant operational challenge of the distribution electric grid. Control of energy systems today is largely performed by centralized computing and control solutions run at central units. Increased infeed measurements (sensing data) result in growing stress and extended time for computations. Thus, centralized control solutions may not be feasibly computed and applied in real-time. This project contributes to fundamentally new methodologies and software for distributed computation of control decisions in real-time. Our research provides a promising solution for the intelligent control of distributed energy resources, which enables the efficient interaction and coordination of a variety of components with and by a central unit. The key premise in this research is that if coordinated in an intelligent, predictive and scalable way, operation of numerous energy resources can be optimized in real-time, thereby resolving the issue of scalability. In addition to extending the proposed distributed control methodology toward achieving reliable and cost effective energy and demand side management, this project focuses on commercializing a more target specific extension of the proposed approach directed at minimizing the operational cost of refrigeration systems in cold chain industries through enhanced distributed coordination.