Architectures for smart end-user services in the power grid

Abstract-The increase of distributed renewable electricity generators, such as solar cells and wind turbines, requires a new energy management system. These distributed generators introduce bidirectional energy flows in the low-voltage power grid, requiring novel coordination mechanisms to balance local supply and demand. Closed solutions exist for energy management on the level of individual homes. However, no service architectures have been defined that allow the growing number of end-users to interact with the other power consumers and generators and to get involved in more rational energy consumption patterns using intuitive applications. We therefore present a common service architecture that allows houses with renewable energy generation and smart energy devices to plug into a distributed energy management system, integrated with the public power grid. Next to the technical details, we focus on the usability aspects of the end-user applications in order to contribute to high service adoption and optimal user involvement. The presented architecture facilitates end-users to reduce net energy consumption, enables power grid providers to better balance supply and demand, and allows new actors to join with new services. We present a novel simulator that allows to evaluate both the power grid and data communication aspects, and illustrate a 22% reduction of the peak load by deploying a central coordinator inside the home gateway of an end-user

webXice: an Infrastructure for Information Commerce on the WWW

Systems for information commerce on the WWW have to support flexible business models if they should be able to cover a wide range of requirements imposed by the different types of information businesses. This leads to non-trivial functional and security requirements both on the provider and consumer side, for which we introduce an architecture and a system implementation, webXice. We focus on the question, how participants with minimal technological requisites, i.e. solely standard Web browsers available, can be technologically enabled to articipate in the information commerce at a system level, while not sacrificing the functionality and security required by an autonomous participant in an information commerce scenario. In particular, we propose an implementation strategy to efficiently support persistent message logging for light-weight clients, that enables clients to collect and manage non-reputiable messages as proofs. We believe that the capability to support minimal system platforms is a necessary precondition for the wide-spread use of any information commerce infrastructure

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2009

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

IoT system for EV charging at shared spaces

In current work, we apply the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm to handle the electric vehicle (EV) charging process in small shared spaces, such as condominiums without requiring the intervention of an external supervision entity, being that role performed by the condominium management. A Mobile App handles the user interaction with the system, authenticating the request to initiate the EV charging process, a microcontroller connected to set of sensors and an actuator is used for measuring energy consumption and for enabling the charging process and, a Management Unit controls the process end to end, providing the required services to the Mobile App and the microcontroller unit while manages the energy sharing between the EV charging stations accordingly the condominium limitations and processes the energy measures to consolidate the EV charging energy transaction. A minimal user interface allows the users to visualise transactions, manage users' preferences, and configure the platform. Additionally, the conceptual model for a scaled solution is presented, supported on blockchain technologies to handle the financial transitions, allowing current approach to be replicated on broader EV charging scenarios, such as public charging systems in a city. The developed system was tested in a shared space with three EVs using a charging infrastructure for 3.5 months.No presente trabalho, é aplicado um paradigma de Internet Of Things (IOT) para agilizar e controlar o processo de carregamento de Veículos Elétricos (VE) em espaços partilhados de menores dimensões, como por exemplo condomínios residenciais, sem que seja necessária a intervenção (a título de prestação de serviços) de uma entidade externa, sendo todo o processo controlado pela gestão de condomínio. Uma aplicação móvel permite ao utilizador interagir com o sistema, permitindo a este autenticar-se no mesmo é condição necessária para que seja despoletado o processo de carregamento do VE. O sistema implementado com recurso a um microcontrolador encontrase ligado a um conjunto de sensores e um atuador permitindo medir a energia que esta ser consumida para carregamento do VE e simultaneamente, ligar e desligar o dispositivo de carregamento do veículo (através do controlo de um interruptor que entrega a energia entregue a este). O processo é controlado por uma unidade de gestão centralizada, que gera a distribuição de energia pelas estações de carregamento de VEs de acordo com as limitações do condomínio através do ligar e desligar destas e em simultâneo regista e processas as medições da energia consumida para consolidar as informações que constituem a transação de carregamento de VE e respetiva contraparte financeira associada à mesma. Adicionalmente, a unidade de gestão centralizada e a aplicação móvel, disponibilizam interfaces de utilizador mínimas para permitir funções como a consulta de transações, gestão e configuração da plataforma. Complementarmente, é apresentado um modelo conceptual permitindo escalar a solução proposta para espaços partilhados de maior dimensão, com recurso à utilização de tecnologias blockchain para gestão e registo das transações financeiras associadas à operação. Propondo uma abordagem, que poderá ser replicável em cenários mais amplos de utilização como por exemplo, a infraestrutura publica de carregamento de VE de uma cidade. O protótipo desenvolvido foi testado num espaço partilhado com três VE, usando uma infraestrutura de carregamento durante 3,5 meses

IoT and blockchain paradigms for EV charging system

In this research work, we apply the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm with a decentralized blockchain approach to handle the electric vehicle (EV) charging process in shared spaces, such as condominiums. A mobile app handles the user authentication mechanism to initiate the EV charging process, where a set of sensors are used for measuring energy consumption, and based on a microcontroller, establish data communication with the mobile app. A blockchain handles financial transitions, and this approach can be replicated to other EV charging scenarios, such as public charging systems in a city, where the mobile device provides an authentication mechanism. A user interface was developed to visualize transactions, gather users’ preferences, and handle power charging limitations due to the usage of a shared infrastructure. The developed approach was tested in a shared space with three EVs using a charging infrastructure for a period of 3.5 months.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio