Homeostaticity of energy systems: How to engineer grid flexibility and why should electric utilities care

Abstract

Today's power generation and distribution industry is being faced with a number of issues, from violent weather phenomena to earthquakes, fires and landslides; including acts of arson, terrorism and vandalism, all of which pose serious concerns for the sustainability of the distribution and supply of electricity. Electric utilities like ENEL are cognizant of this fact and know they must take action. Moreover, they are required by law to be prepared and act proactively to prevent service disruption, by responding to such challenges rapidly and effectively so as to preserve stability and continuity of operation. Homeostaticity of energy systems seeks just that: to bring about a rapid, effective and efficient state of equilibrium between energy supply and expenditure at all times, whatever the circumstances, to preserve stability of systems operation. The paper presents a prescriptive energy homeostaticity model being considered by ENEL as a means to further the incorporation of renewables in the electricity generation and distribution industry. The aim is to enhance control and energy management systems in distributed generation installations tied to the grid for urban and rural communities, in order to complement and diversify their electric power distribution services. The theoretical groundwork underlying the subject as well as other relevant contextual factors are also discussed and simulation results are presented under different tariff scenarios, and energy storage alternatives, in order to compare the proposed model with the actual case. Energy storage (ES) is found to be of paramount importance in the overall analysis of the results as it enhances and reinforces thriftiness on energy consumption.

Grid-Tied Distributed Generation Systems to Sustain the Smart Grid Transformation: Tariff Analysis and Generation Sharing

“…SES actions are based on the situational awareness and degree of criticality-both having a distinct power-quality footprint being exhibited by the system. The solution to this challenge has been designed and developed based on energy homeostasis principles [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] and engineered in form of what has been termed and conceptualized as energy homeostaticity in the literature [16][17][18]. Homeostaticity in energy systems is that property, designed and engineered in the energy system itself, which seeks 1) to restore the system from a systemic imbalance or disruption that has altered its normal or steady state mode of operation, and 2) to bring about a rapid, effective and efficient state of equilibrium between the energy supply and the energy expenditure (consumption by the loads) at all times, whatever the circumstances, to preserve and maintain stability of operation in the energy system.…”

“…Homeostaticity in energy systems is that property, designed and engineered in the energy system itself, which seeks 1) to restore the system from a systemic imbalance or disruption that has altered its normal or steady state mode of operation, and 2) to bring about a rapid, effective and efficient state of equilibrium between the energy supply and the energy expenditure (consumption by the loads) at all times, whatever the circumstances, to preserve and maintain stability of operation in the energy system. It basically incorporates artificial intelligence and especially designed, community-specific intelligent control algorithms that are built to encompass a HC system [16][17][18]. Thus, the SES is operated as a function of adverse system conditions and environmental challenges being sensed by the energy system and represented by the awareness and criticality variable α.…”

“…Other researchers have done research quite extensively on this very subject, advocating for different schemes of energy consumption and energy sharing made possible by novel energy management and power control systems based on energy homeostasis, providing insight into various forms and scenarios of DSM. Both energy homeostasis and energy sharing are key to these new schemes so as to incentivize the production of renewable energy at different scales, coupled with the grid supply, and under tariff schemes which clearly entice prosumers to enhance their behavior, provided that there are appropriate economic incentives for advancing such schemes not only in the residential sector, but also in the commercial and industrial sectors as well, making them attractive amongst consumers [16][17][18]. As a matter of fact, there are already incentives in Chile, provided by the net metering law 20,571 enacted in 2014 [19], which provides appropriate economic benefits for those willing to install and generate electricity through on-grid distributed generation systems (DGS) although not addressing the tariff differentiation issue.…”

“…The chief aim of the electric utility is to clearly identify and characterize electric consumption profiles, particularly amongst residential consumers, so as to be able to distinguish those customers who are more intensive in power consumption during these daily hourly blocks as well as their behavior during specific times of the year, from those who are less intensive and who also exhibit a rather thrifty behavior when it comes to energy consumption [20][21][22]. Those who collaborate and maintain a rather more stable, thrifty, and regular energy consumption-especially during peak hours of the day and also during periods of the year when extreme demand for electricity occurs-are entitled to be rewarded by having a lower electric tariff [15][16][17][18]. This distinct changes in power versus energy consumption are clearly monitored and recorded regularly by the electric utilities in some way or fashion, depending on the particulars of the operations management models and regulations that exist in each country [20][21][22].…”

OpenADR and Agreement Audit Architecture for a Complete Cycle of a Flexibility Solution

“…In any case, it is necessary to be prepared for these emergent paradigms, where the users and the rest of the power system need to be perfectly balanced and linked, this being an advantage for both parts not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world [ 17 ].…”