COORDINATION OF DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCE AGENTS

This article describes our research in technologies for the management and control of distributed energy resources. An agent-based management and control system is being developed to enable large-scale deployment of distributed energy resources. Local intelligent agents will allow consumers who are connected at low levels in the distribution network to manage their energy requirements and participate in coordination responses to network stimuli. Such responses can be used to reduce the volatility of wholesale electricity prices and assist constrained networks during summer and winter demand peaks. In our system, the coordination of energy resources is decentralized. Energy resources coordinate each other to realize efficient autonomous matching of supply and demand in large power distribution networks. The information exchange is through indirect (or stigmergic) communications between agents. The coordination mechanism is asynchronous and adapts to change in an unsupervised manner, making it intrinsically scalable and robust.