A "smart grid" is an electricity network which is managed using advanced ICT systems and infrastructures, in order to realise flexible, reliable and efficient balancing of power flows and energy exchanges between the supply and demand sides. This is commonly achieved using a "bottom-up" approach, assuming that system-wide "smart grid" functionalities could be achieved from the aggregation of "smart-enabled" individual resources. However, this proved to be difficult, as a large number of diverse individual resources is effectively owned and/or operated by many distinct actors, which often have different interests and dissimilar aims, making the task of their coordination a very complex one.
In order to solve these issues, we propose FLEXMAN, as a study on a different approach to the "smart grid" technological and algorithmic challenges. The main idea is to change the current paradigm of existing electricity markets, which is to "trade" resources (generation, storage, demand-manageable loads, etc.), to a genuinely new approach, which proposes trading of "services".
To this aim, building on the experience and data collected in the EC FP7 SmartHG project, we will study, design and provide a prototype implementation of computational services for Distributed System Operators (in order to improve the operational performance of distribution networks) and energy consumers (in order to minimise their energy bill). Moreover, we will study how such services may be integrated in a common service Marketplace, where services are actually "traded". Finally, in order to show that such services advance the state-of-the-art in smart grids management, we will evaluate them by using the available data and information obtained from the SmartHG project.
The FLEXMAN service designs has a strong relation with the DSM computational services successfully developed within the EC FP7 SmartHG project (Energy Demand Aware Open Services for Smart Grid Intelligent Automation [22], 2013-2016), which was coordinated by Enrico Tronci. Namely, the main DSM services developed in SmartHG were the following: i) the Demand-Aware Price Policy (DAPP) service, which proposes an individualised price policy to each residential user connected to a given network substation, so that given operational constraints on such substation are met, and ii) the Energy Bill Reduction (EBR) service, which runs on each house by controlling charge/discharge of home batteries, in order to follow the given individualised price policy, so that the energy bill is minimised. Igor Melatti, the PI of the current proposal, was in charge of designing and implementing both DAPP and EBR.
The most important findings of the SmartHG project and the services proposed were the individualised price policies to achieve smoother demand management, improved load factors in distribution networks and increased economic benefits to users depending on their demand flexibility. However, unlike the FLEXMAN concept, demand flexibility management was not explicitly included in the service design and energy retailer services were not considered, missing an important opportunity for additional economic benefits.
Interaction between DSOs, retailers and users has been investigated in many other European projects, such as URB-Grade, AMBASSADOR, Odysseus and SHAREBOX. However, to the best of our knowledge, none has focused on developing economically viable software services to manage demand flexibility with an aim to reduce costs for DSOs, retailers, VPPs and energy users.
Based on previous results and lessons learnt from the aforementioned research projects, the approach in the FLEXMAN project will consist of three main steps:
1) Research actions:
a. Identification of service opportunities and barriers.
b. Architecture design for the Service Marketplace solution.
c. Identification of software solution candidate.
2) Design and Integration:
a. Demand flexibility modelling.
b. Services for DSOs energy consumers, retailers and VPP operators.
c. Business models for the services and the marketplace, techno-economic studies for the selection of energy storage technologies for demand flexibility improvement.
d. The Service Marketplace design.
e. Software integration platform design
The project ambition is to make study how to significantly improve the existing state-of-the-art in some of the following areas:
- Distribution network management services and tools based on increased demand and generation flexibility.
- Novel optimised tariff policies and demand response schemes for energy retailers based on increased demand flexibility.
- Increased energy capture from renewable resources resulting from improved demand flexibility management and also hosting capacity of distribution network.
- Reduced energy costs to energy users as a result of improved pricing schemes and active participation of user demand flexibility in the local flexibility market.
- New business models for service deployment and demand and generation flexibility improvement (by means of energy storage deployment).
- New Service Marketplace solution for service deployment, flexibility management, data processing and analytics and secure and unintrusive service access.
- Innovative software cloud solution for a simplified access to the Service Marketplace for different types of users.
Fully recognising the existing initiatives and efforts, the motivation for the work in FLEXMAN project comes from implementing a "mid-layer" approach, which assumes that the highest possible "smart grid" benefits will be achieved when locally aggregated supply-demand resources are made visible and then coordinated across the whole distribution networks, with the DSOs defining the value of the services offered in local markets/networks and in that way allowing full and seamless (almost automatic) realisation of "smart grid" functionalities with the minimum intervention of end-users. Another distinctive point of the FLEXMAN project is our assertion that "smart grid" solutions for the efficient supply-demand balancing should be aimed at delivering energy required to satisfy the needs and to improve the overall "well-being" of all individual users/customers and, in that way, enhance the "quality of life" of our society as a whole. This is important, as the majority of the currently proposed and envisaged "smart grid solutions" typically rely on a strict scheduling and direct control of demands (i.e. different forms of "energy rationing"), or various schemes for limiting and controlling customer¿s access to energy (e.g. when excess or large enough centralised or renewable distributed generation outputs are available).