Smart Buildings in the Smart Grid: Contract-Based Design of an Integrated Energy Management System

Abstract

In a supply-following "smart" grid scenario, buildings can exploit remotely controllable thermostats and "smart" meters to communicate with energy providers, trade energy in real-time and offer frequency regulation services, by leveraging the flexibility in the energy consumption of their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. The realization of such a scenario is, however, strongly dependent on our ability to radically re-think the way both the grid and the building control algorithms are designed. In this work, we regard the grid as an integrated, distributed, cyber-physical system, and propose a compositional framework for the deployment of an optimal supply-following strategy. We use the concept of assume-guarantee contracts to formalize the requirements of the grid and the building subsystem as well as their interface. At the building level, such formalization leads to the development of an optimal control mechanism to determine the HVAC energy flexibility while maximizing the monetary incentive for it. At the grid level, it allows formulating a model predictive control scheme to optimally control the ancillary service power flow from buildings, while integrating constraints such as ramping rates of ancillary service providers, maximum available ancillary power, and load forecast information. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology and the improvements brought by the proposed control strategy with respect to the state of the art.

Design Automation of Cyber-Physical Systems: Challenges, Advances, and Opportunities

“…The results show that such co-scheduling approach can effectively leverage the flexibility in building energy scheduling and significantly reduce energy consumption and peak demand. In these approaches, simplified RC network models are used to Recently, the paradigm of contract-based design has been applied for smart buildings and their integration into the smart grid [54], [55]. In particular, assume-guarantee contracts are formalized between the buildings and the grid to leverage the HVAC scheduling flexibility and optimize the ancillary service power flow from buildings.…”

A Platform-Based Design Methodology With Contracts and Related Tools for the Design of Cyber-Physical Systems

“…An integration language incorporating A/G contracts to formalize system requirements and enable the generation of simulation monitors has been proposed within the META research program [11], with the aim to compress the product development and deployment timeline of defense systems. Furthermore, over the last few years, many publications have demonstrated the application of A/G contracts in different domains, such as automotive [12], [13], analog integrated systems [5] and, more recently, synthesis and verification of control algorithms for CPS [14], [15], [16], [17].…”

“…• The interaction between the specification and the implementation platforms can also be modeled using the contract conjunction C ∧ M. In this case, assumptions and guarantees combine as in (16), and C ∧ M is assured to refine C by construction. However, being a conjunction, it can still be a source of inconsistencies.…”

“…• Languages for architecture modeling, such as the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) 15 and the Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL) 16 .…”

Failure-Tolerant Contract-Based Design of an Automated Valet Parking System using a Directive-Response Architecture

“…From the composition of these components, overall system properties can be inferred or proved. This contract-based architecture has been demonstrated for several applications [6], [7], [8], [9]. Our goal here is to adapt and extend this framework to model a directiveresponse architecture on an automated valet parking system with the following features:…”