Prosumer-based control architecture for the future electricity grid

Abstract

The electricity industry has embarked on an unprecedented process of modernization and transformation to meet the emerging needs of a highly reliable, efficient and sustainable society. Although DOE has defined a coherent set of broad objectives for the smart grid, there are growing concerns that the current architecture of the electricity industry and the associate infrastructure controls may not be able to support these objectives. A broader vision of what will be possible in the future grid is highly needed as well as the definition of formal control architecture. This paper proposes some of the core elements that can ensure that smart grid related efforts, such as regulatory policy, market structure, control infrastructure and power technologies, realize the smart grid objectives in a measurable manner. We propose a distributed, prosumer-based grid control architecture. This architecture is very flexible and ultimately enables a paradigm that can foster innovation while supporting the current grid and a large number of emerging requirements.