Agent-based smart grid market simulation with connection to real infrastructures

Abstract

The consensus behind Smart Grids (SG) as one of the most promising solutions for the massive integration of renewable energy sources in power systems has led to the practical implementation of several prototypes and pilots that aim at testing and validating SG methodologies. The urgent need to accommodate such resources of distributed and intermittent nature and the impact that a deficient management of energy sources has on the global population require that alternative solutions are experimented. This paper presents a multi-agent based SG simulation platform that is connected to physical resources, so that realistic scenarios with palpable influence on real resources can be simulated. The SG simulator is also connected to the Multi-Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets (MASCEM), which provides a solid framework for the simulation of restructured electricity markets. Taking advantage on the complementarities between the simulators, a SG market is proposed, and a realistic simulation scenario, using two real buildings acting in a simulated SG is presented.