Smart Microgrids: Overview and Outlook

The idea of changing our energy system from a hierarchical design into a set of nearly independent microgrids becomes feasible with the availability of small renewable energy generators. The smart microgrid concept comes with several challenges in research and engineering targeting load balancing, pricing, consumer integration and home automation. In this paper we first provide an overview on these challenges and present approaches that target the problems identified. While there exist promising algorithms for the particular field, we see a missing integration which specifically targets smart microgrids. Therefore, we propose an architecture that integrates the presented approaches and defines interfaces between the identified components such as generators, storage, smart and \dq{dumb} devices.Comment: presented at the GI Informatik 2012, Braunschweig Germany, Smart Grid Worksho

An Extended Mean Field Game for Storage in Smart Grids

We consider a stylized model for a power network with distributed local power generation and storage. This system is modeled as network connection a large number of nodes, where each node is characterized by a local electricity consumption, has a local electricity production (e.g. photovoltaic panels), and manages a local storage device. Depending on its instantaneous consumption and production rates as well as its storage management decision, each node may either buy or sell electricity, impacting the electricity spot price. The objective at each node is to minimize energy and storage costs by optimally controlling the storage device. In a non-cooperative game setting, we are led to the analysis of a non-zero sum stochastic game with $N$ players where the interaction takes place through the spot price mechanism. For an infinite number of agents, our model corresponds to an Extended Mean-Field Game (EMFG). In a linear quadratic setting, we obtain and explicit solution to the EMFG, we show that it provides an approximate Nash-equilibrium for $N$-player game, and we compare this solution to the optimal strategy of a central planner.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1607.02130 by other author

Internet Predictions

More than a dozen leading experts give their opinions on where the Internet is headed and where it will be in the next decade in terms of technology, policy, and applications. They cover topics ranging from the Internet of Things to climate change to the digital storage of the future. A summary of the articles is available in the Web extras section

TechNews digests: Jan - Mar 2010

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

mLearning, development and delivery : creating opportunity and enterprise within the HE in FE context

This research project was funded by ESCalate in 2006-7 to support Somerset College in developing the curriculum, as well as widening participation via the use of mobile communications technologies such as mp3 players and mobile phones. The Project represents a highly topical and timely engagement with the opportunities for learning provided by the burgeoning use of mobile computing/ communications devices. Activities bring together colleagues from Teacher Education and Multimedia Computing in an innovative approach to designing for and delivering the curriculum. The Project addresses pedagogic issues and also vitally involves current and future learners, providing them with a new context for skills development and entrepreneurship. Anticipated outcomes include informed development of new HE modules and professional CPD activities which address the skills and context of this emerging approach to delivering the curriculum. The Project also intends to trial and evaluate the use of mobile technologies to support a blended learning approach to programme delivery and the development of a FD module which could be delivered via a mobile computing device. An interim report and a final project report are available as Word and PDF file

M-health review: joining up healthcare in a wireless world

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver health and social care. This trend is bound to continue as providers (whether public or private) strive to deliver better care to more people under conditions of severe budgetary constraint

Distributed control in the smart grid

This thesis addresses some of the challenges that arise when the new smart grid paradigm is applied to power systems. In particular, novel control strategies are designed to deal in a decentralized matter with the increasing complexity of the network. Two main areas are investigated: participation to frequency control of variable-speed wind turbines and management of large populations of competing agents (e.g. micro-storage devices and "smart appliances") that exchange energy with the system. The first part of this work presents two different techniques that allow wind turbines to provide frequency response: following the trip of a large power plant, the turbines population increases its aggregate generated power, reducing the resulting drop in frequency. A first method models the wind turbines as stochastic hybrid systems: the generators switch randomly between two operative modes characterized by different efficiency and generated power at equilibrium. Transitions are driven by frequency-dependent switching functions: single generators behave randomly while large populations perform deterministically, changing the total power in response to frequency variations. The second proposed control strategy allows a prescribed increase in generation, distributing the control effort among the individual turbines in order to maximize the duration of frequency support or minimize the resulting kinetic energy losses. The second part of the thesis deals with large populations of agents which determine their operation strategy in response to a broadcast price signal. Micro-storage devices performing energy arbitrage are initially considered: each agent charges/discharges during the day in order to maximize its profit. By approximating the number of devices as infinite, modelling the population as a continuum and describing the problem through a differential game with infinite players (mean field game), it is possible to avoid synchronicity phenomena and determine an equilibrium for the market. Finally, the similar case of flexible demand is analyzed, with price-responsive appliances that schedule their power consumption in order to minimize their energy cost. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a Nash equilibrium are provided, extending the results by introducing time-varying constraints on the power rate and considering partial flexibility of the devices.Open Acces