The continuously increasing complexity of modern and sustainable power and energy systems leads to a wide range of solutions developed by industry and academia. To manage such complex system-of-systems, proper engineering and validation approaches, methods, concepts, and corresponding tools are necessary. The Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM), an approach that has been developed during the last couple of years, provides a very good and structured basis for the design, development, and validation of new solutions and technologies. This review therefore provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art and related work for the theory, distribution, and use of the aforementioned architectural concept. The article itself provides an overview of the overall method and introduces the theoretical fundamentals behind this approach. Its usage is demonstrated in several European and national research and development projects. Finally, an outlook about future trends, potential adaptations, and extensions is provided as well.

Smart grid systems are characterized by high complexity due to interactions between a traditional passive network and active power electronic components, coupled using communication links. Additionally, automation and information technology plays an important role in order to operate and optimize such cyber-physical energy systems with a high(er) penetration of fluctuating renewable generation and controllable loads. As a result of these developments the validation on the system level becomes much more important during the whole engineering and deployment process, today. In earlier development stages and for larger system configurations laboratory-based testing is not always an option. Due to recent developments, simulation-based approaches are now an appropriate tool to support the development, implementation, and rollout of smart grid solutions. This paper discusses the current state of simulation-based approaches and outlines the necessary future research and development directions in the domain of power and energy systems.

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The complex nature of cyber-physical energy systems (CPES) makes systematic testing of new technologies for these setups challenging. Co-simulation has been identified as an efficient and flexible test approach that allows consideration of interdisciplinary dynamic interactions. However, basic coupling of simulation models alone fails to account for many of the challenges of simulation-based multi-domain testing such as expert collaboration in test planning. This paper illustrates an extended CPES test environment based on the co-simulation framework mosaik. The environment contains capabilities for simulation planning, uncertainty quantification and the development of multi-agent systems. An application case involving virtual power plant control is used to demonstrate the platform’s features. Future extensibility of the highly modular test environment is outlined.

A driving force for the realization of a sustainable energy supply in Europe is the integration of distributed, renewable energy resources. Due to their dynamic and stochastic generation behaviour, utilities and network operators are confronted with a more complex operation of the underlying distribution grids. Additionally, due to the higher flexibility on the consumer side through partly controllable loads, ongoing changes of regulatory rules, technology developments, and the liberalization of energy markets, the system's operation needs adaptation. Sophisticated design approaches together with proper operational concepts and intelligent automation provide the basis to turn the existing power system into an intelligent entity, a so-called smart grid. While reaping the benefits that come along with those intelligent behaviours, it is expected that the system-level testing will play a significantly larger role in the development of future solutions and technologies. Proper validation approaches, concepts, and corresponding tools are partly missing until now. This paper addresses these issues by discussing the progress in the integrated Pan-European research infrastructure project ERIGrid where proper validation methods and tools are currently being developed for validating smart grid systems and solutions.