Evaluation of peer-to-peer energy sharing mechanisms based on a multiagent simulation framework

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy sharing involves novel technologies and business models at the demand-side of power systems, which is able to manage the increasing connection of distributed energy resources (DERs). In P2P energy sharing, prosumers directly trade energy with each other to achieve a win-win outcome. From the perspectives of power systems, P2P energy sharing has the potential to facilitate local energy balance and self-sufficiency. A systematic index system was developed to evaluate the performance of various P2P energy sharing mechanisms based on a multiagent-based simulation framework. The simulation framework is composed of three types of agents and three corresponding models. Two techniques, i.e. step length control and learning process involvement, and a last-defence mechanism were proposed to facilitate the convergence of simulation and deal with the divergence. The evaluation indexes include three economic indexes, i.e. value tapping, participation willing and equality, and three technique indexes, i.e. energy balance, power flatness and self-sufficiency. They are normalised and further synthesized to reflect the overall performance. The proposed methods were applied to simulate and evaluate three existing P2P energy sharing mechanisms, i.e. the supply and demand ratio (SDR), mid-market rate (MMR) and bill sharing (BS), for residential customers in current and future scenarios of Great Britain. Simulation results showed that both of the step length control and learning process involvement techniques improve the performance of P2P energy sharing mechanisms with moderate ramping / learning rates. The results also showed that P2P energy sharing has the potential to bring both economic and technical benefits for Great Britain. In terms of the overall performance, the SDR mechanism outperforms all the other mechanisms, and the MMR mechanism has good performance when with moderate PV penetration levels. The BS mechanism performs at the similar level as the conventional paradigm. The conclusion on the mechanism performance is not sensitive to season factors, day types and retail price schemes

A customizable multi-agent system for distributed data mining

We present a general Multi-Agent System framework for distributed data mining based on a Peer-to-Peer model. Agent protocols are implemented through message-based asynchronous communication. The framework adopts a dynamic load balancing policy that is particularly suitable for irregular search algorithms. A modular design allows a separation of the general-purpose system protocols and software components from the specific data mining algorithm. The experimental evaluation has been carried out on a parallel frequent subgraph mining algorithm, which has shown good scalability performances

Optimal Economic Schedule for a Network of Microgrids With Hybrid Energy Storage System Using Distributed Model Predictive Control

Artículo Open Access en el sitio web el editor. Pago por publicar en abierto.In this paper, an optimal procedure for the economic schedule of a network of interconnected microgrids with hybrid energy storage system is carried out through a control algorithm based on distributed model predictive control (DMPC). The algorithm is specifically designed according to the criterion of improving the cost function of each microgrid acting as a single system through the network mode operation. The algorithm allows maximum economical benefit of the microgrids, minimizing the degradation causes of each storage system, and fulfilling the different system constraints. In order to capture both continuous/discrete dynamics and switching between different operating conditions, the plant is modeled with the framework of mixed logic dynamic. The DMPC problem is solved with the use of mixed integer linear programming using a piecewise formulation, in order to linearize a mixed integer quadratic programming problem.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitivadad DPI2016-78338-RComisión Europea 0076-AGERAR-6-

Towards next generation coordination infrastructures

Coordination infrastructures play a central role in the engineering of multiagent systems. Since the advent of agent technology, research on coordination infrastructures has produced a significant number of infrastructures with varying features. In this paper, we review the the state-of-the-art coordination infrastructures with the purpose of identifying open research challenges that next generation coordination infrastructures should address. Our analysis concludes that next generation coordination infrastructures must address a number of challenges: (i) to become socially aware, by facilitating human interaction within a MAS; (ii) to assist agents in their decision making by providing decision support that helps them reduce the scope of reasoning and facilitates the achievement of their goals; and (iii) to increase openness to support on-line, fully decentralised design and execution. Furthermore, we identify some promising approaches in the literature, together with the research issues worth investigating, to cope with such challenges. © Cambridge University Press, 2015.The work presented in this paper has been partially funded by projects EVE (TIN2009-14702-C02-01), AT (CSD2007-0022), and the Generalitat of Catalunya grant 2009-SGR-1434Peer Reviewe

Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Parallel and Distributed Simulation

Discrete Event Simulation is a widely used technique that is used to model and analyze complex systems in many fields of science and engineering. The increasingly large size of simulation models poses a serious computational challenge, since the time needed to run a simulation can be prohibitively large. For this reason, Parallel and Distributes Simulation techniques have been proposed to take advantage of multiple execution units which are found in multicore processors, cluster of workstations or HPC systems. The current generation of HPC systems includes hundreds of thousands of computing nodes and a vast amount of ancillary components. Despite improvements in manufacturing processes, failures of some components are frequent, and the situation will get worse as larger systems are built. In this paper we describe FT-GAIA, a software-based fault-tolerant extension of the GAIA/ART\`IS parallel simulation middleware. FT-GAIA transparently replicates simulation entities and distributes them on multiple execution nodes. This allows the simulation to tolerate crash-failures of computing nodes; furthermore, FT-GAIA offers some protection against byzantine failures since synchronization messages are replicated as well, so that the receiving entity can identify and discard corrupted messages. We provide an experimental evaluation of FT-GAIA on a running prototype. Results show that a high degree of fault tolerance can be achieved, at the cost of a moderate increase in the computational load of the execution units.Comment: Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT 2016

Towards next generation coordination infrastructures

Coordination infrastructures play a central role in the engineering of multiagent systems. Since the advent of agent technology, research on coordination infrastructures has produced a significant number of infrastructures with varying features. In this paper, we review the the state-of-the-art coordination infrastructures with the purpose of identifying open research challenges that next generation coordination infrastructures should address. Our analysis concludes that next generation coordination infrastructures must address a number of challenges: (i) to become socially aware, by facilitating human interaction within a MAS; (ii) to assist agents in their decision making by providing decision support that helps them reduce the scope of reasoning and facilitates the achievement of their goals; and (iii) to increase openness to support on-line, fully decentralised design and execution. Furthermore, we identify some promising approaches in the literature, together with the research issues worth investigating, to cope with such challenges