Ricerc@Sapienza

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.