search.json

{"entries":[{"title":"Page Not Found","url":"/404.html","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"Sorry, but the page you were trying to view does not exist — perhaps you can try searching for it below. var GOOG_FIXURL_LANG = 'en'; var GOOG_FIXURL_SITE = '' "},{"title":"About the PowerMatcher Suite","url":"/about/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"PowerMatcherSuite (PowerMatcher and FPAI) is a Flexiblepower Alliance Network project. http://www.flexiblepower.org/ Licence The PowerMatcherSuite projects are licenced under the Apache License, Version 2.0 . Use of PowerMatcher Trademark PowerMatcher is a registered trademark of TNO . Only FAN-members are allowed to use the trademark and logo! Checkout the FAN website for more information. Contact If you want to get in touch. Twitter info ( a_t ) flexiblepower.org (only for FAN related e-mail) Questions: General questions PowerMatcher questions FPAI-core questions "},{"title":"Help us Grow!","url":"/get-involved/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":""},{"title":"Why should I Join?","url":"/get-involved/why-join/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"Both individuals and organisations are welcomed to join the development. Individuals If you came this far you probably find that the problems we are facing in the near future regarding our massive energy consumption habits are unsustainable. By joining our movement you can do your part in reducing the consumption of fossil fuels because we can make much more efficient use of the already available infrastructure, integrate more renewables and have more electric vehicles yea! Besides making the world a better place you might also find that we are working on a very nifty piece of technology. However we are not under the impression that we have thought of the perfect product, but perhaps with your help we can get a step further to perfection! Organizations As an Organisation it could also be of interest for you to actively join the development of the PowerMatcher Suite. PowerMatcher/FPAI can add value to your business/organization, but by actively participating you can gain insight and actively steer the product to include your own “demands”/wishes: Reduce risks Gain insight in security (make sure that new features are save for you to implement) Built in new features and ask others members to help The community might be able to help with issues you are experiencing Compatibility Help others make sure that your products are compatible with new releases Don’t lose time on integration It can be time consuming to merge the open source edition with your proprietary extensions. It saves time to contribute these extensions to the project. More features attract more users If there are more devices/features, it is likely to increase the adoption of the software. This can lead to more customers of the organization. More innovation By participating in the community you can look for innovation to add to your product Get your contributions accepted faster Known programmers with a good reputation within the project can add code more easily Proof for your customers that you know the software since you make active contributions. Please contact info@flexiblepower.org if you want to join the FAN and subscribe to our github.com/flexiblepower repositories. "},{"title":"How can I Contribute?","url":"/get-involved/contribute/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"PowerMatcher and FPAI are open source projects. Contributions are welcome and actively encouraged to improve the experience. There are multiple ways to contribute to the project. Some examples: Share your experience with others (e.g. via powermatcher.org) Improve/Write documentation (any kind) Report bugs Send in feature requests Fix bugs Develop new features Promote the project Github The home of the open source projects is Github.com/flexiblepower . How to contribute General information on how the FAN projects work can be found the FAN-wiki . Project specific information can be found in the related repository e.g. PowerMatcher or FPAI Stuff to work on Look for an issue that fits you. E.g. PowerMatcher or FPAI or FAN general items Communication channels The communication channels can be found on the FAN Github wiki . The main communication channels are Github issues. Development status The current activities can be found on Github . Coding guidelines Coding guidelines can be found on the github wiki pages. "},{"title":"How to get started","url":"/get-started/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"Virtual Machine You can download a demo here . Manual installation The manual intallation instruction can be found on in the download file. "},{"title":"Are you a consumer wanting to be a prosumer?","url":"/get-started/consumers/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"Being a prosumer means producing your own energy next to the consumption of energy. Do you have a solar panel and do you want your washing machine to switch on when it is producing power? You don’t have to wait for the market to be ready with a fully operational PowerMatcher infrastructure in place. You can download the PowerMatcher here and start to optimize your own house. The documentation explains step by step how you can install the PowerMatcher on a computer and how to connect it to your devices* We already have a set of agents and drivers that work with a set of appliances. See if your appliance is listed here . Not in there and like a little bit of hacking? Join our community and get some support so that you can have a PowerMatcher system up in no time. "},{"title":"Are you a company wanting a more green office?","url":"/get-started/companies/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcherSuite can be used to optimize your office building or even a set of office buildings. In addition the PowerMatcher technology can also be used to reduce your energy bill by using the flexibility of your system to buy and/or sell your energy smart on the energy markets. How can you achieve these things? Read on! The PowerMatcher has been implemented in the Couperus project in The Hague to optimize a residential apartment building with solar panels and heat pumps. The PowerMatcher can also be used to optimize your climate control systems or electric vehicle park. But also larger industrial installations that have flexibility can use the PowerMatcher technology to unlock their flexibility; for instance greenhouse farmers have CHPs, or datacenters have backup generators that are idle most of the time. Virtually any combination of devices is possible; load only, production only; or a combination of both. The Energy Xchange Enablers (EXE) company is the first commercial solution that has leveraged PowerMatcher technology to unlock flexibility with clients (for instance a set of office buildings with a considerable volume of PV and battery installations) and use that flexibility to more effectively purchase energy on the energy markets. Your company won’t need an energy trading license to do this. Contact Energy Xchange Enablers here . Want a flying start? All you need to do for your company to be able to leverage the PowerMatcher technology is to make your devices capable of talking PowerMatcher language . It needs a device driver and possibly a device agent. Check out our list of ready available drivers and agents or follow this tutorial that instructs your developers to build an agent quickly and easily. "},{"title":"Are you an energy collective wanting to be Self-Sustaining?","url":"/get-started/energy-collectives/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher is a very scalable solution for connecting cluster of residential buildings and local generation units. By means of the PowerMatcher a microgrid can be created that maintains its own balance. A coupling with the power grid is still possible for those moments that the generation capability of your microgrid is not sufficient to deal with the load. Please contact us here so we can work with you on a large scale rollout of the technology. "},{"title":"Are you an aggregator wanting to harvest Flexibility?","url":"/get-started/aggregators/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher is available open source and can be used to unlock flexibility, even into household level, cost effectively. All parties are encouraged to take the PowerMatcher, which is licensed under Apache 2.0, and integrate it with their own solution. If you are looking for a standard out of the box flexibility trading platform, look no further. The Ene gy Xchange Enablers (EXE) company is the first commercial solution that has leveraged PowerMatcher technology to unlock flexibility with end consumers/producers (for instance a set of office buildings with a considerable volume of PV and battery installations) and use that flexibility to more effectively purchase energy on the energy markets. The EXE company has released a commercial product that can be used by aggregators to trade the flexibility of the PowerMatcher cluster on the energy markets. For more information please contact Energy Xchange Enablers here . "},{"title":"Are you a device manufacturer wanting to become PowerMatcher Ready?","url":"/get-started/manufacturers/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"All you need to do for your company to be able to leverage the PowerMatcher technology is to make your appliance capable of talking PowerMatcher language. It needs a device driver for FPAI and a device agent for PowerMatcher. The device driver entails the physical connection and mapping of the device control space to the FPAI control space. A device driver is manufacturer, type and model specific. The benefit of developing a device driver is that in the future any Energy App like the PowerMatcher that interfaces with the FPAI platform can control your appliance. The device agent contains logic to use the FPAI control space and construct bids for the PowerMatcher market. FPAI defines four abstraction categories (See FPAI): Uncontrolled, Time Shifter, Buffer/Storage, Unconstrained, therefore at least four types of agents are necessary. For each of these categories simple agents are already available open source and can be customized to your liking. You could add additional business rules or make the agent even smarter by including optimization techniques. Check out our list of ready available drivers and agents or follow this tutorial that instructs your developers to build a driver or agent quickly and easily. "},{"title":"Are you a developer wanting to help us move forward?!","url":"/get-started/developers/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"That is great news! We need all the help we can get to bring this disruptive open source technology out there. We have dedicated another page that will guide you into setting up a PowerMatcher instance. The source code can be found on github.com/flexiblepower . Detailed documentation for FPAI and documentation for Powermatcher is also available on github’s wiki as well as an issue tracker . Spread the word and help our community grow! "},{"title":"Are you a grid operator wanting to manage local congestion?!","url":"/get-started/grid-operators/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher is a great tool for managing local congestion points, we have proven this in various test beds in the Netherlands and Bornhol island. This is also the reason why the two biggest grid operators of the Netherlands: Alliander and Stedin have already joined the FAN alliance . Please contact the FAN if you want to join the alliance and/or bring the technology to your domain! "},{"title":"In practice","url":"/in-practice/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":""},{"title":"In Operation","url":"/in-practice/in-operation/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"Current PowerMatcher™ implementations can be also be found on the Flexiblepower Alliance Network REFERENCE PROJECTS IN OPERATION PowerMatching City Location: Hoogkerk, The Netherlands In 2010 the PowerMatcher™ technology was implemented in Hoogkerk. The goal was to show that the technology not only worked during tests in a laboratory environment but also in real-life. 25 household were selected and outfitted with several intelligent devices such as smart washing machines, heat-pumps, solar panels and micro-CHP’s. The results showed that consumers can and will change their energy usage profile to benefit from lower energy prices when local power is abundant. Connecting devices and coordinating energy demands resulted in a lower peak in the grid and it significantly reduced the difference in supply and demand in the neighborhood. Another significant result was the insight that the technology was not yet ready for large scale deployment at that time. Particularly the installation and configuration of devices and the connection to the local market were complex and time consuming. Matrix V Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands Late in 2011 the PowerMatcher™ technology was installed in an office building housing around 15 companies. The PowerMatcher™ technology was used to coordinate the energy production of PV on the rooftop with the energy demand of dishwashers and fridges in the coffee corners of the building. Goal was to determine if connecting existing appliances in office buildings to the smart grid was economically viable. The results showed that refitting existing appliances by adding switches and sensors to the mains plug of a regular appliance can be beneficial. However the benefits are bigger when using smart appliances where the technology is integrated. The reason is not only the higher cost of having additional equipment with which you can only switch on and off, but mainly the need for energy related information from the device itself. That information is usually available in smart appliances. Couperus Location: the Hague, The Netherlands In 2012 a new complex with 300 apartments has been outfitted with heat-pumps. The PowerMatcher™ technology helps to coordinate the energy use of these heat-pumps in order to reduce peak loads and differences in supply and demand. For the end users, the system should lead to a lower energy bill, without reducing customer comfort or freedom. FAN REFERENCE PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT PowerMatching City II Location: Groningen, The Netherlands PMCII is the follow up to PowerMatching City. The project started in May 2013 and more than doubles the number of household to around 60. The focus is less on the technological side but more on energy services and energy markets. The project will test how different personal goals of end-users have different types of impact on the local energy system. Some households will aim to minimize their energy costs, by buying when energy is cheap and selling when energy is expensive. Others will aim to minimize their interaction with the outside by using locally available energy as much as possible. Ecogrid Location: Bornholm The EU funded research project Ecogrid started in 2011 and will coordinate the energy demands of 2.000 households on the island of Bornholm (Denmark) with local production by wind turbines. Without added intelligence, the high penetration of renewable energy (>50%) on the island causes critical usage of the existing grid-transport capacity and may result in difficult if not impossible balancing of supply and demand. The participants will be equipped with residential smart devices using gateways and “smartâ€� controllers. Installation of the solutions allows for real-time prices to be communicated to consumers and allows users to configure their automatic demand-response preferences, e.g. through different types of electricity price contracts. “Automationâ€� and customer choice is one of the key elements in this project. Smart Grid Pilot Heerhugowaard Location: Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands One of the projects of the Smart Energy Collective (SEC) is located in the city of Heerhugowaard, more specifically, in a 10 year old neighborhood. Most of the 3.000 households have solar panels on their roofs. The remaining electricity demand is produced by a wind turbine. The project aims to install PowerMatcher™â„¢ technology in 300-500 households in 2014, with the addition of a number of microCHP’s, electric vehicles, heat-pumps and smart appliances. The project will evaluate several customer value propositions regarding energy flexibility. The goal is to determine if the interaction of gas and electricity can be used to optimize a local energy market, by using spare capacity in the gas grid to reduce peak loads in the power grid. Lochem Energy Location: Lochem Lochem Energy is a smart energy initiative in an existing grid. It is the result of a user initiative to start a local energy cooperative by households to reduce their energy consumption and produce a larger part of their energy needs locally. The aim is to have a total of 1MW of PV systems at multiple locations to serve 250 customers, without any investments in new grid capacity. Partners are Locamation (coordinator), Lochem Energie, Universiteit Twente, Eaton Industries, Trianel and Alliander. Houthaven Location: Amsterdam The Houthaven project is part of the European NEXT-building program, in which a new generation of “low energy buildings” with smart technologies are tested in Amsterdam, Lyon and Helsingborg. Houthaven is an old harbor area which will be redeveloped. Once redeveloped, it will consist of 2.000 households and 40.000 m2 of commercial property (schools, offices andshops). The harbor areashould become climate neutral. Partners are Alliander, KEMA, city of Amsterdam, University of Kassel, University of Amsterdam, Ecole polytechnique de Lausanne, COWI a/s, Helsinborgshem, SPLA Lyon confluence, hespul, BKAB Boende Komfort and VOF Houthaven. FAN R&D PROJECTS VIOS Funding: Dutch TopSector (TKI Switch2SmartGrids) The Virtual Infrastructure Operating System (VIOS) project is aimed at the seamless connection of appliances to different smart market developments (USEF, OpenADR/Oasis, SEDC,..). Most smart market implementation are not designed to interact with each other, making it difficult to commercialize standardized smart appliances. VIOS creates this standard on the level of a virtual infrastructure, where a definition of connectivity makes it possible for both service developers and equipment manufacturers to optimize their part of the value chain. The project will show in practice how different types and brands of appliances can be coordinated uniformly by the same service. The concepts and designs are direct input for the FAN standard developments. Partners are Alliander, TNO, Technolution and iNRG. Energy Supply Cooperative (ESC) Funding: EIT KIC InnoEnergy The project Energy Supply Cooperative (ESC) is aimed at developing energy-autarkic, environmentally friendly residential quarters. A large part of the required energy will be provided by photovoltaic systems within the quarters, the energy consumption is reduced to a minimum by modern passive house technology. A maximal self-usage of photovoltaic energy is achieved by heat pumps with hot water storages and intelligent load shifting within the quarter. Additionally, socio-economic effects of energy consumption are analysed and opportunities for load reduction and shifting are derived. Electricity that cannot be covered by own production is obtained from an external energy supplier. In the micro-grid, an intelligent energy management using PowerMatcher™ ensures the optimal interaction between local energy supply and demand. In the end, the aimed innovations shall remain affordable for households with average incomes. Partners: Evohaus, KIT and TNO Hybrid Energy Grid Management (Hegrid) Funding: EIT KIC ICT labs Hybrid Energy Grid Management (HEGRID) focuses on realizing a prototype multi-commodity (electricity, gas and thermal energy) energy management framework. This framework enables interoperability of a variety of energy management approaches and devices. The basis of HEGRID will be formed by the Open Energy Management Framework: an operational platform that supports multiple smart grid approaches for the electric grid. This base platform will be extended to support gas and thermal grids as well. It will also feature a coordination mechanism that can make intelligent decisions across commodities (e.g. how to make the best use of a CHP that uses gas to produce heat and electricity). Multi-commodity energy management is largely unexplored territory, but is an important step to increase the efficiency, flexibility and stability of the combined grids. The project addresses essential challenges posed by the “Energy transition” to incorporate more energy generated from renewable sources. Partners: Alliander, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Siemens, Universiteit Twente, Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO). "},{"title":"List of Drivers","url":"/in-practice/driver-list/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"List of existing device agents PowerMatcher device agents Bluegen (closed source, made by IBM) FPAI drivers (all open source): S0 pulse counters Miele@Home gateway protocol Miele Dishwasher DW1000 Miele Refrigerator Simulation drivers + managers PV Panel Battery Heatpump Hexabus driver Smartmeter driver + manager Scenario application Your driver/agent here? Please add it to this page "},{"title":null,"url":"/index.html","date":null,"categories":[],"body":" "},{"title":null,"url":"/news/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":""},{"title":null,"url":"/search/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":""},{"title":"The Suite","url":"/technology/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The Suite comprises two disruptive open source technologies; the PowerMatcher and the Flexible Power Application Infrastructure. Both technologies are complementary but can also function on their own. The PowerMatcher is a smart grid coordination mechanism. The Flexible Power Application Infrastructure, FPAI in short, is an operating system which enables appliances, the smart grid and smart services to communicate with each other. "},{"title":"PowerMatcher under the Hood","url":"/technology/powermatcher/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher is a ‘demand response’ technology that balances all smart devices, from low voltage to high voltage, in a virtual market. The PowerMatcher could also be herded among the recently coined term transactive energy. “Transactive energy (TE) is a new hot topic in the energy industry, but what exactly is it? Frankly, it is a concept so new that it does not yet have a formal definition. Carl Imhoff, manager of electricity infrastructure for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory summed it up by saying, “Transactive energy is a means of using economic signals or incentives to engage all the intelligent devices in the power grid—from the consumer to the transmission system—to get a more optimal allocation of resources and engage demand in ways we haven’t been able to before.” The PowerMatcher concept is based on the micro-economic principle of demand and supply. Supply and demand is one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. The quantity demanded is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price; the relationship between price and quantity demanded is known as the demand relationship. Supply represents how much the market can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain price. The correlation between price and how much of a good or service is supplied to the market is known as the supply relationship. Price expresses the willingness to pay for supply and demand. The relationship between demand and supply underlie the forces behind the allocation of resources. In market economy theories, demand and supply theory will allocate resources in the most efficient way possible. When supply and demand are equal (i.e. when the supply function and demand function intersect) the economy is said to be at equilibrium. The same mechanism is used in PowerMatcher. PowerMatcher core application provides the marketing mechanism for the determination of the equilibrium, while the agents work as actors representing demand and/or supply. Agent Technology The technology differentiates from other demand response technologies due to its multi agent based decentralized approach. The PowerMatcher consists of various agents that communicate via the PowerMatcher protocol. These agents are the: Device agent Concentrator agent Auctioneer agent Objective agent The Device Agent In the PowerMatcher framework a smart device is represented by a device agent. The device agent contains logic to operate the process associated with the device in an economical optimal way. It translates the state of a smart device (battery charge is low or CHP output is 1500W and gas consumption is 0,61 Euro/m3) to a bid on the PowerMatcher market (see Protocol section). The device agent could also contain logic to make the device “smart” by including end user wishes as well as external input such as weather or energy price forecasts. By taking into account this extra information the device can determine for itself what would be the best time to consume…. or produce energy. On one side the device agent is connected to the the PowerMatcher market, on the other side to the physical device. To steer and read out the machine, a “physical” connection has to be made with the device. This could be done by mapping the agent directly to the IO of the device or perhaps a web service as delivered by the device manufacturer. PowerMatcher can also be run on the FPAI technology as an intermediate layer; this only requires a mapping of the device agent to the abstraction layer of FPAI. FPAI takes care of the actual physical connection with the device (see FPAI section). As a result the PowerMatcher device agent does not have to think about the type of machine, brand, or model number. The reader is referred to the FPAI section for a more detailed explanation of FPAI technology. The Concentrator Agent The concentrator agent performs three functions. The first function of the concentrator is the bundling of messages received from child agents. Children could be other concentrator agents or other device agents. The concentrator concentrates, or aggregates, all these messages and publishes a single message upward in the hierarchy. The second function entails the virtual representation of concepts or physical entities in the real world. A concentrator can bundle every smart device in a single household and therefore represent this household. A concentrator can also represent an electric cable, transformer or for instance a neighborhood. Lastly, the concentrator can be used to manipulate the children agents that are present in a sub cluster. Affecting a single concentrator allows for localized manipulation. The first idea of local manipulation that has been implemented in the PowerMatcher is the capability of local congestion management; by making the concentrator more intelligent it can peak shave loads and make sure that the net output of sub cluster stays within certain power limits. The Auctioneer Agent The auctioneer always stands on top of the hierarchy and bundles all messages received from child agents. The auctioneer determines the optimal set point (see Optimization Techniques) of the cluster and returns this set point to each child agent; each child node will receive this set point and forward it to his children….and so forth. The Objective Agent The objective agent gives a cluster its purpose. The objective agent interfaces to the business logic behind the specific application. The objective agent can be connected to the auctioneer or a concentrator agent. The objective agent can send external incentives to manipulate the other agent by means of the general PowerMatcher protocol (See Protocol section). When the objective agent is absent, the goal of the cluster is to balance itself, i.e., it strives for an equal supply and demand within the cluster itself. Depending on the specific application, the goal of the cluster might be different. If the cluster has to operate as a virtual power plant, for example, it needs to follow a certain externally provided setpoint schedule. Such an externally imposed objective can be realized by implementing an objective agent. Other couplings could be with the energy trading market, external optimization algorithms etc. Distributed nature The PowerMatcher is distributed in nature Want to see how this works, follow the Get Started guide to setup your own PowerMatcher! . The best solution presently is the use of FPAI that functions as a gateway operating system (a gateway can be compared to your router for connecting to the internet, like your laptop with Windows the gateway also needs an operating system) and unburdens the PowerMatcher from the connectivity and interoperability with physical appliances (see FPAI). Because of the distributed nature of the PowerMatcher the concept is extremely scalable. You can implement it on household level and have an auctioneer optimize your house. It can also be implemented by an energy collective or aggregator to optimize over a large system. Agents communicate with each other over the internet. A logical setup would be a central PowerMatcher server hosted by for instance an Aggregator or Energy Collective. This central server is the endpoint connection for hundreds of households and houses the Auctioneer; each household hosts its own mix of device and concentrator agents on a local gateway and connects to the auctioneer on the central server. PowerMatcher protocol Every agent in the PowerMatcher framework communicates via a standardized protocol. This protocol defines two way communication where the upward message in the hierarchy is different from the downward or returning message. The upward message consists of a bid curve. A bid curve describes the relation between “Power” and “willingness to consume or produce power”. This willingness is expressed as a price/kW. The downward message is the market price that balances the system. A small thought exercise, imagine a battery or cooler: [plaatje] When his state of charge is almost full a battery is only willing to charge at low prices, vice versa an empty battery is willing to pay a higher price to recharge. Likewise a cooler is willing to cool at a higher price, only when it reaches critical inside temperature and the tomatoes are about to go bad. A device agent generates new bid curves, or events, that represent his current state and willingness to pay for power and also the amount of power needed/produced. The returning message is the internal PowerMatcher price. This price is the set point that optimizes the entire cluster and was determined by the auctioneer (see Optimization techniques). The price message flows through every branch and to every endpoint, the device agent. The device agent maps this price to his prior published bid curve and determines its consumption or production set point, indeed that is the amount of power the device was willing to acquire or produce for that price. This power set point is communicated to the appliance by the device agent through the FPAI abstraction layer (see Device Agent and FPAI). Optimization techniques and the PowerMatcher optimization At the moment we distinguish at least three types of optimization system approaches: Centralized optimization (e.g. Simplex method) Decentralized optimization (part of the objective function is calculated locally) Agent technology In a centralized optimization system a control signal is often centrally imposed meaning a control center determines whether your air-condition should be turned on or off. A centralized optimization can also become very computationally-intensive with increasing amount of connected devices and parameters. A decentralized optimization is already more in line with PowerMatcher ideology, yet we feel that the solution would still be too complex with many iterations. In the PowerMatcher framework we relied on agent technology. Your appliance and agent will act autonomously based on your predefined settings (most cost efficient, most green energy etc.) and settings are never imposed. In other words, you still get to decide at any moment whether you want to turn your airco on or off. The PowerMatcher ensures that the end user retains full control but its energy consumption or production will be optimized autonomously as set by end user’s desired constraints. The optimization of the PowerMatcher is based on the micro-economic principle of demand and supply. When supply and demand are equal (i.e. when the supply function and demand function intersect) the economy is said to be at equilibrium. PowerMatcher core application provides the marketing mechanism which is embedded in the communication protocol for the determination of the equilibrium, while the agents work as actors representing demand and/or supply. The optimum is determined in a single iteration. Bid curve aggregation and determining the optimal set point As bid curves are send higher up the hierarchy they are received by the parent agent. A parent agent is always a concentrator or auctioneer agent. Both agents aggregate the received bid curves and compose a new single bid curve. Aggregation means as much as adding bid curves; bid curves that represent generation of energy, produce ‘negative power’ or ‘negative supply’ and are therefore subtracted. [plaatje] This is possible because apparently, within that sub cluster, there are two devices that cancel each other out at a particular price level. The refrigerator was willing to consume 500W at a price of 0,30 cents/kW and the battery was willing to discharge at 500W at a price of 0,30 cents/kW. After aggregation of all child agent bid curves a new aggregated bid curve is composed that resembles the net powerdemand as a function of the price. The auctioneer performs one extra action after aggregation to determine the optimal point of the system. Since the final aggregated bid curve represents the net power demand as a function of the price, the price where the net demand equals zero is the point where the systems supplies as much power as is demanded. This is the internal price where the system is in balance. Consequently this price is communicated down the hierarchy, each individual device will start consuming or producing energy as ‘promised’ by its bid curve. Optimization of current state and events The PowerMatcher always optimizes the current state. The state of the system changes due to events. So as soon as the internal temperature of a refrigerator changes it sends out a new bid curve, or event. This event is then dealt with within the PowerMatcher possibly causing a chain of events if the implications of the bid curve caused a significant change in the system. "},{"title":"The Flexible Power Application Infrastructure","url":"/technology/fpai/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The Flexible Power Application Infrastructure (FPAI) provides a runtime environment that makes it possible to quickly design and implement new energy services and smart appliances. FPAI enables easy deployment and configuration of ‘Energy Apps’ and device drivers, and provides easy interaction through the Energy Flexibility Interface. Now device manufacturers can write generic device drivers for their appliances that can be used by any Energy App that runs on FPAI. Also any Energy App that is developed on FPAI can make use of all available drivers. The Energy Flexibility Interface The Energy Flexibility Interface defines a standard set of control spaces for four type of devices. It is not the device that is modelled but rather its energy flexibility. Four control spaces are sufficient to cover all device types. In essence, a control space is a way to put the information that is contained within a device into a generic structure, such that Energy Apps are able to understand that device from a generic energy model. A Control Space defines the freedom in which the appliance can be started, and how much energy is consumed or produced when started. The appliance driver is a specific mapping of the specific control space of a particular appliance to the standardised Energy Flexibility Interface. The appliance driver uses a communication protocol to communicate with the appliance. At the physical level, this could be Zigbee, Z-Wave, PLC, WIFI, Ethernet, propriety, etc. This is often provided by the manufacturer of the appliance. Using the Control Space of a device, Energy Apps can determine the usage profile of the devices, i.e. when a device should start or stop etc. The Energy App sends a control signal, or Allocation to the device based on certain events. In case of the PowerMatcher a control signal to the device would be the result of receiving a new market price. The appliance driver receives the Allocation and based on this it decides the optimal way to control the device. At this point the user preferences are also taken into account. Where Control Spaces form an abstract representation of a device, Allocations are used to express what a device is requested to do. For each Control Space, there is also one Allocation type. Control Spaces: Uncontrollable. Has no flexibility, is measureable and may provide forecast. Examples are Photo voltaic panels, Wind Turbines, TV, indoor lighting, etc. Time Shiftable. Operations can be shifted in time, but it has a deadline. Examples are a Washing machine, Dishwasher, etc. Buffer/Storage. Flexible in operation for either production or consumption however operation is bound by a buffer. Examples are a Freezer, Heat Pump, CHP, Batteries, EV, etc. Unconstrained. Flexible in operation for production. The operation is not bound by a buffer. Examples are Gas Generators, Diesel Generator, etc. Other Interfaces The App Store is an online store that houses all Energy Apps and appliance drivers. A person can easily browse and install new applications on their FPAI hub. The Remote Management Interface allows for remote management of multiple FPAI nodes. This makes it possible to do remote updating of the software or remotely troubleshooting a customer. FPAI user interface The owner of a FPAI hub can open a dashboard or Graphical User Interface (GUI) in his browser that shows controls and information about his FPAI hub and the current state of his appliances in the form of Widgets. Each Widget shows information about an appliance. It is possible to have multiple Widgets per appliance. "},{"title":"Why and What is the PowerMatcher Suite?","url":"/why/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The Suite comprises two disruptive open source technologies; the PowerMatcher and the Flexible Power Application Infrastructure. Both technologies are complementary but can also function on their own. The PowerMatcher is a smart grid coordination mechanism. The Flexible Power Application Infrastructure, FPAI in short, is an operating system which enables appliances, the smart grid and smart services to communicate with each other. "},{"title":"Why PowerMatcher","url":"/why/powermatcher/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The current situation in electrical networks In a world increasingly concerned about the cost, availability and environmental consequences of conventional energy supplies, the electrical power industry stands on the cusp of a profound transition. Presently, the power industry has to cope with a growing electricity demand using an ageing electricity infrastructure. This in parallel with the transition towards generation through intermittent and decentralized sources of clean(er) energy poses landmark challenges for the sector. Consumers are becoming “Prosumers”, by using energy from the grid at one time, while feeding in at another. Further, the supply-side controllability decreases since part of the installed capacity is intermittent and dependent on external conditions such as weather (wind, sun) or local heat demand (cogeneration). If energy supply and demand responded to real time and varying energy prices, a huge potential for controllability gains on the demand side would be generated. For instance, charging of the batteries of electric or plug in hybrid vehicles would create a price sensitive outlet for off peak demand. To address these challenges in a cost-effective manner, the Smart Grid requires a scalable two-way coordination mechanism that is able to communicate and optimize over a multitude of small to medium-sized controllable generators and loads, with the Smart Meter acting as the key enabler. The missing link The missing link is a communication and coordination protocol for Smart Grids, as part of a complete system architecture. An electricity network is needed that responds dynamically to the permanently changing supply and demand situations through real time market based solutions that automate control operations. Energy companies, consumers and regulators alike are seeking a vision for the grid, that extends the accommodation capabilities for increasing renewable energy generation. The envisaged system incorporates advanced grid technologies which enable complete grid communication and coordination from the consumer up all the way up to the network operator and the wholesale markets. PowerMatcher To fill in the missing link, an innovative software solution was designed: PowerMatcher . See about for a brief history on how PowerMatcher was established. PowerMatcher technology is a distributed energy systems architecture and communication protocol, which facilitates implementation of standardized, scalable Smart Grids, that can include both conventional and renewable energy sources. Through intelligent clustering, numerous small electricity producing or consuming devices operate as a single highly-flexible generating unit, creating a significant degree of added-value in electricity markets. PowerMatcher Technology optimizes the potential for aggregated individual electricity producing and consuming devices to adjust their operation in order to increase the overall match between electricity production and consumption. “PowerMatcher is an ICT technology for making the electricity grid smart .” There are already numerous implementations of PowerMatcher in the field where the technology has proven itself, see implementations for a list of noticeable projects. If you want to contribute to PowerMatcher see the section Get Involved . Also, if you are curious what PowerMatcher can mean for your business or how to make business with PowerMatcher, see PowerMatcher Business Cases . PowerMatcher is maintained by the Flexiblepower Alliance Network and the open-source community. Advantages Consumer/Prosumer remains in control. PowerMatcher does not centrally impose a signal to turn off your airco from a distance. As a consumer you always stay in control and determine where you want your device to offer its flexibility. Highly Scalable. The PowerMatcher makes use of agent technology, conceptually it is therefore infinitely scalable. Cost effective even at small scale. The PowerMatcher does not require difficult models of each device running in a central application. It can be implemented cost effictively even in the low voltage grid such as common households and small businesses. This is a radical increase in scope because most flexility available now is being harvested in larger industrial installations. Local congestion management. The PowerMatcher is capable of managing local congestion points. This is great news because with increasing numbers of electric vehicles and heatpumps most congestion issues are expected locally. PowerMatcher Mission Statement PowerMatcher aims to facilitate the implementation of standardized, scalable Smart Grids by providing a market-based coordination system for balancing demand and supply in clusters of distributed energy resources. Powermatcher intents to become the world’s standard for the Smart Grid, accessible to anyone. By becoming more and more widespread, barriers for smarter use of electricity will decrease. PowerMatcher relies on the open-source community in order to become the world standard. "},{"title":"Why Flexible Power Application Infrastructure","url":"/why/fpai/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"FPAI is the second technology that is part of the PowerMatcher Suite. FPAI and PowerMatcher are complementary but can also be used on their own. Over the years a lot of different Demand Side Management (DSM) approaches have been developed. Unfortunately these DSM approaches are not interoperable. A similar issue can be identified on the appliance level. Appliances provide the flexibility that is being exploited by DSM. To begin with there a lot of different appliances (washing machines, Combined Heat Power Systems, PV panels, fridges, etc.). They also use different protocols for communication (Zigbee, Z-wave, WiFi, PLC, etc.). All this variety on both the DSM and appliance level presents Energy Management Systems (EMS) with a big challenge. Nowadays most EMS’es are tightly coupled to a particular DSM approach. This results in a vendor lock-in for consumers. A switch to another DSM approach/service almost always requires the installation of another EMS (hardware box). The FlexiblePower Application Infrastructure (FPAI) is a runtime environment where on one side smart grid applications can be deployed and on the other side appliances can be connected, see it as a gateway operating system. The FPAI provides interfaces to interact with the environment,such as a User Interface, and connect devices and smart grid apps. Part of the interface definitions are the Control Spaces and Allocations. FPAI aims to create an interoperable platform that is able to connect to a variety of appliances and support a variety of DSM approaches. This way the EMS hardware does not need to be changed when a consumers switches from one service to another. At the same time the FlexiblePower Application Infrastructure makes it easier for service providers to introduce new services, since they do not have to provide the EMS hardware to their consumers to go with it. Developers of services do not have to deal with a new specific interface for every type, brand and model of a device. They only have to communicate with the standard Energy Flexibility Interface as specified by FPAI. Lastly smart appliance manufacturers only have to provide a single driver in order for their device to be interoperable with a variety of services. "},{"title":"Business Cases","url":"/why/businesscases/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"PowerMatcher can be of use in various business cases. In most business cases, flexibility is of key value. In an electricity network where the supply is becoming more and more intermittent and less and less flexible, the ability to generate or consume electricity at a moment of choice becomes of high value. Several parties can provide this flexibility ( flex providers ) and other parties need this flexibility ( flex consumers ). Business area’s could emerge where flex providers and consumers are linked with eachother. Business area’s The following business areas can be identified: Flexibility service providers (FSP): The FSP aggregates flexibility from individual households and/or businesses and offers it to flexibility consumers. Community service providers (CSP): The CSP aggregates flexibility from a group of households (e.g. a community) and offers it to flexibility consumers. Energy service companies (ESCO): ESCO’s use the flexibility of individual businesses in order to reduce the connection capacity. Domotics / Intelligent Homes: Use the flexibility available at individual households such that locally generated electricity is used on the spot as much as possible. Flexibility providers and consumers The following parties are in need of flexibility: Balance response party (BRP) Grid operator (TSO and DSO) Individual end user The following parties are potential sources of flexibility: Individual households, notably with heat pumps and electric vehicles. Groups of households, communities, local sustainability collectives, owners associations Commercial electricity users Local governments and housing cooperatives Industries Example business cases Business cases for the PowerMatcher can be found in electricity trading, active distribution management and in energy management in homes and buildings. Business Cases in Electricity Trading With the PowerMatcher technology virtual power plants can be created, clustering numerous distributed generators, responsive loads and electricity storages in a single operational unit. Such a virtual plant is able to provide flexibility services for the balancing markets. In a field test involving industrial & residential generation and demand response the PowerMatcher was used to balance wind energy production. The system achieved an imbalance reduction of 40 to 45%. In the Dutch balancing market, a 100MW wind farm has approx. 1 Mio euros imbalance costs on an annual turn over of approx. 10 Mio euros. Business Cases in Active Distribution Management In distribution system operations, PowerMatcher business cases can be found in network congestion management, network load profile shaping and black-start support, for instance In a field test involving 10 micro-CHP systems at the premises of end-customer’s premises, PowerMatcher showed capable of reducing the peak load at the MV/LV transformer with 30% to 50%. "},{"title":"Why Open Source?!","url":"/why/opensource/","date":null,"categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher Suite and Open Source The Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) is a non-profit organization which exists in order to help develop and distribute the PowerMatcher Suite. The FAN strongly beliefs in the power of the open-source community, which is why PowerMatcher Suite is 100% open source under the Apache 2.0 License and in open development. If you want to contribute to PowerMatcher Suite, or need to adapt PowerMatcher Suite to satisfy the needs for your PowerMatcher Suite-based application, this is allowed. However we strongly encourage everybody to give back their findings and improvements to the community so the technology can grow as a whole. Open sourcing the PowerMatcher Suite is a unique advantage in a smart grid world where most solutions are still proprietary. We believe it will propell the adoption and help the Suite become a worldwide standard. Bottom line is that in the end a lot of (smart) devices have to be connected to the smart grid. We believe this will go a whole lot faster if everybody can participate instead of us with a small team trying to connect every single device to our system. All the software code is available on https://github.com/flexiblepower including documentation and a set of tutorials. Github enables social coding, easy version control and reporting of issues. The community welcomes new developers and contributions. It is not obligatory to be part of the alliance in order to contribute. Not familiar with the concept of Open Source? Here are some handy links: opensource.com Open source initiative There are multiple reasons to use the open source model. Here are some examples: Openess always wins in the end! Open source is part of the sharing economy Open source software moves faster to commodity The open source model can lead to more innovation Reduced vendor-lock-in "},{"title":"PowerMatcher tested using Toyota Prius","url":"/PowerMatcher-tested-using-Toyota-Prius/","date":"2009-02-15 00:00:00 +0000","categories":[],"body":"More and more electrically-powered vehicles are appearing on the market. They are charged using the existing electricity grid. But the grid may be overloaded if an increasing number of consumers charge their vehicles at the same time. ECN examines how to avoid such a peak load in the electricity grid. The answer is by using ECN’s PowerMatcher. PowerMatcher is a software technology developed by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). The technology harmonises the actions of electrical devices. To do so the software adds intelligence to devices like a battery charger for electrical vehicles. PowerMatcher determines automatically when the charger can best take electricity from the grid. It ‘sees’ when the electricity is expensive or inexpensive and whether there is a big or small supply of electricity and waits for the best moment to activate the charger. This controls the energy load on the grid to achieve the most favourable total load possible. Testing “To test PowerMatcher the ECN Efficiency & Infrastructure unit purchased a Toyota Prius,” explains Peter van der Laag, who works for ECN Intelligent Energy Grids. He is building up knowledge of grid-coupled electricity storage. “By charging the vehicle battery with PowerMatcher, we are studying how the battery responds, its efficiency, how long charging takes and what service life the battery has. The vehicle is equipped with test equipment to measure the battery’s behaviour and to analyse data”. The vehicle is eye-catching. Emblazoned with ECN logos and texts like I love stopcontacten [power outlets], the Toyota Prius catches the attention of many road users. Van der Laag: “We’ve replaced the standard battery by a far more powerful lithium ion battery with twelve times as much storage capacity, approximately 6 KWh. It is charged in the ordinary way using the grid, with a 1 kW charger fitted in the boot. We will soon have a rapid charger that lets the vehicle cover 45 km electrically with just a 30-minute charging time. This is enough capacity for a majority of journeys. With a full tank of petrol is possible to drive more than 900 km.” Future The Policy Studies unit and Engineering & Services unit are also involved in the research. Together with research and test institute KEMA and grid operators, the Policy Studies unit is examining the pros and cons of introducing electrical vehicles on a large scale. Engineering & Services is responsible for making technical modifications to the vehicle and for the grid connection. A unique possibility is that PowerMatcher could also be capable of supplying electricity to the grid from the vehicle’s battery. Talks are currently in progress with market parties on the marketing of PowerMatcher. "},{"title":"Four Articles at CIRED'09","url":"/Four-Articles-at-CIRED-09/","date":"2009-06-08 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"At the CIRED 2009 Conference in Prague, four PowerMatcher related papers have been presented. The theme of this year’s conference was: Innovation in Electricity Distribution for a Sustainable Future. CIRED is the leading International Conference on Electricity Distribution. The PowerMatcher related papers cover a wide range of topics: from field test upscaling via Smart Houses and Smart Substations to intelligent software agent strategies. Three papers were presented in the Distributed Energy Resources leg of the conference. Bart Roossien presented his paper on field test experiences in the one of the two main sessions. His paper describes the upscaling in consecutive PowerMatcher field tests. From a few units in the Crisp field test to approaching 100 units in the field test in the Integral project. The latter test is entering its roll-out phase in the coming period. Koen Kok presented a paper on Smart Houses delivering power flexibility services to both active distribution management and energy trading. The paper has been a cooperation effort within the SmartHouse/SmartGrid project. It describes different smart grid functionalities (use cases). Further, if gives a qualitative analysis of impacts on energy efficiency and efficient network management. The presentation of this paper was part of a round table session on research directions. Other interesting talks in this session are held by Enexis and Enel. The three talks in the session initiated a lively discussion among speakers and the audience. The third presented paper is more theoretical in nature and is part of Kok’s PhD work. It analyses different strategies of local control agents in a Virtual Power Plant. The fourth paper was presented by Josco Kester in one of the sessions on Network Components. On behalf of an industry consortium, Josco presented the Smart Distribution Station, a smart MV/LV-station able of managing power flows while maintaining power quality and reliability. A prototype of this station is currently being tested in the Flex Power Grid Lab in Arnhem (NL). Demonstration in a live test grid of the Dutch grid operator Liander will be conducted in a later stage. First simulation results show a significant reduction of harmonic voltages and resonances, as well as a peak load reduction of 30%. PowerMatcher technology integrated in the station is contributing to the latter. Downloads * Field Test Upscaling * Smart Houses in a Smart Grid * Agent Strategies * Smart Distribution Station "},{"title":"Smart EV in the Cleaner Vehicle Tour","url":"/Smart-EV-in-the-Cleaner-Vehicle-Tour/","date":"2009-09-21 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"The ECN Smart Electric Vehicle participated in the Cleaner Vehicle Tour 2009 which was held in Amsterdam as part of the European Mobility Week. The smart vehicle is equipped with PowerMatcher functionality enabling the car to participate in a smart electricity grid or a virtual power plant. The electricity grid may be overloaded if an increasing number of consumers charge their vehicles at the same time. ECN examines how to avoid such a peak load in the electricity grid by using ECN’s PowerMatcher technology. The Cleaner Vehicle Tour was held for the third time on Sunday the 20th of September in Amsterdam. The assembly point was the Food Centre. The morning started with a panel discussion, including the city’s Alderwoman of Environmental Issues Marijke Vos, Dutch former prime-minister Ruud Lubbers and Essent New Energy CEO Alexandra van Huffelen. After the discussion, a charging point at the Food Centre in Amsterdam was officially taken into use. The tour itself was opened by Major Job Cohen. About 50 clean cars (electric, bio-fuel, hydrogen) and a high number of clean scooters and bicycles drove in convoy through the city of Amsterdam. Around noon, the companion stopped at the Dam Square in the city center. The final destination was the Albert Cuijp Market, where an Electric Avenue took place. The Cleaner Vehicle Tour was part of the eighth edition of European Mobility Week held from 16 to 22 September 2009. In hundreds of European towns and cities, citizens were invited to a wide range of activities promoting sustainable mobility. The 2009 campaign theme – “Improving City Climates” – underlines the importance of local level efforts to tackle climate change and improve quality of life through the promotion of alternative transport modes to the car such as cycling, walking, and public transport as well as clever car use schemes such car-sharing and car-pooling. "},{"title":"First PowerMatcher seminar successful","url":"/First-PowerMatcher-seminar-successful/","date":"2009-10-28 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher makes a necessary step towards practice. The current increase in renewable energy sources makes matching of energy demand and supply more and more an urgent matter. On October 28th, around 120 professionals from Flanders and The Netherlands gathered in Breda for the First PowerMatcher Seminar. The broad group of attendants, for the largest part representing industrial parties, learned how the PowerMatcher technology makes its step from research to implementation. The seminar consisted of a series of interesting presentations by distribution system operators, energy suppliers, energy system providers and others. Most of them tested and demonstrated the PowerMatcher in different pilot projects, or are planning to do so in the near future. The PowerMatcher was shown to be applicable in concrete business cases for industrial virtual power plants, the introduction of electrical vehicles and smart coordination of home appliances. Demonstration of ECN, VITO, Nedap and AREVA illustrated the effective operation of the PowerMatcher. Two SmartGrid-ready plug-in hybrid cars, just outside the conference room, even attracted the attention of several locals. In principle, The PowerMatcher does the work for the energy end-customer. Those willing to compete with the intelligent system could participate in the interactive demonstration “PowerMatcher – the Game”. Several participants found out it was not easy to switch their “smart” appliance reacting to real-time price signals from the energy market. From R&D-focused pilot projects a step is being made towards commercial application of the technology. The animated discussion at the end of the workshop showed the attendant’s ample enthusiasm for this step. "},{"title":"PowerMatcher wins Impact Prize","url":"/PowerMatcher-wins-Impact-Prize/","date":"2012-01-26 00:00:00 +0000","categories":[],"body":"PowerMatcher wins Impact Prize The PowerMatcher, and its application in the EcoGrid large-scale smart grid demonstration, won the TNO Energy Impact Prize 2011 last Tuesday. Out of a list of around 20 projects and technologies, PowerMatcher was selected as one of 4 nominees. An audience of energy researchers selected PowerMatcher after all nominees presented their project in a pitch of 2.5 minutes. The prize is a bronze statuette portraying innovation through cooperation plus a diner for the whole PowerMatcher team at TNO. "},{"title":"PowerMatcher Part of Sustainia100","url":"/PowerMatcher-Part-of-Sustainia100/","date":"2012-06-27 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"PowerMatcher Part of Sustainia100 Two projects involving TNO’s PowerMatcher technology are among the 100 most powerful sustainable solutions in the world gathered in the Sustainia100 list. Both projects are sustainable electricity demonstration projects: the EcoGrid prototype of the European smart electricity grid and PowerMatching City, the first living smart grid community in the world. This has been announced at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro. The list was presented in a plenary session to the high-level decision-makers and country representatives present in Rio. Gathered from 56 countries spread over six continents, Sustainia100 is a complete guide to innovative and scalable solutions instrumental in creating sustainable societies. Building on ready and available solutions only, Sustainia100 is as a tangible tool for sustainability professionals – from politicians to CEOs-­? dedicated to create desirable and sustainable societies. Together with industry partners, TNO is currently developing the PowerMatcher technology into a flexible power platform available for open use in smart grid projects worldwide. jantje EcoGrid The EcoGrid solution enables the electricity grid to handle large amounts of renewable energy. It demonstrates the ability of the Danish island of Bornholm’s energy system to handle a large share of wind energy. More than 50% of the electricity supply on the island is coming from renewable energy sources. The central idea of the EcoGrid EU is the introduction of market-based mechanisms to release balancing capacity, particularly from flexible consumption. Approximately 2,000 residential consumers (out of a total of 28,000 customers) participate in this Smart Grid demonstration project, with flexible demand response tied to real-time price signals. The EcoGrid EU demonstration project is among the largest EU-funded Smart Grid projects. The jury report emphasizes the significant challenge of integrating large amounts of renewable energy from wind and solar farms into the electricity grid as we know it. “Raising eyebrows all over Europe for its ability to handle large amounts of fluctuating renewable energy in its system, the EcoGrid project of Bornholm is a demonstration of the future of energy grids” says the jury. “The size of the project, and the amount of fluctuating renewables integrated, make the project particularly noteworthy”, according the report. TNO’s PowerMatcher is one of the technologies demonstrated on the Danish island. The system will turn a planned 700 houses into smart homes that react to the electricity price and buy the needed electricity as cheap as possible. “As the price will go down during an unexpected peak in renewable energy production consumption will go up. This will help the integration of renewables”, says TNO expert George Huitema, the TNO-internal project leader. “We let the electricity consumption on the island follow the wind energy generation more closely.” The EcoGrid project means a significant step in the number of households handled by the PowerMatcher. “The technology has been designed for scalability”, says Huitema, “so we are confident we will make this project a success. The inclusion in this prestigious Sustainia100 list is the icing on the cake.” PowerMatching City The PowerMatching City project focusses on reversed relationship between supply and demand in the coming smart power grid. Where electricity production (supply) used to respond to demand from consumers, the smart power grid of the future will enable consumers to respond to fluctuations in supply of electricity generated from renewable sources. The project is centered around a living-lab of 25 households in the Hoogkerk district of the City of Groningen in the Netherlands. The PowerMatching City project demonstrates the ability of consumers to be active players in the energy system by providing them with demand response capabilities. Heat, for example, is produced for the building with heat pumps when very cheap electricity is available, and then stored for later use. At the same time, consumers generate their own electricity with photovoltaic solar panels and micro combined heat and power units. In addition, they are able to exchange energy with each other on a local energy market. Joost Laarakkers, the TNO-internal project leader: “This local market has been realized using TNO’s PowerMatcher technology. The system gives priority to the locally produced electricity and to green electricity from outside the district above less-sustainable energy sources.” Again, the jury stresses the importance of demand response in the grid as one of the primary ways to integrate higher amounts of renewable energy into the system. “When demand for energy becomes flexible, intermittent renewable energy becomes more competitive, as the need for storage, grid interconnection, or backup capacity is reduced”, according to the jury report. Partners TNO’s partners in EcoGrid are: transmission system operators Energinet.dk (Denmark) and ELIA (Belgium), distribution network operators Østkraft (Denmark), EDP (Portugal) and Eandis (Belgium), technology companies Siemens, IBM and Landis+Gyr, and knowledge providers SINTEF (Norway), the Danish Technical University DTU, EnCT (Germany), Technalia (Spain), AIT (Austria), ECN (The Netherlands) and the Tallinna University of Technology (Estonia). SINTEF has the project lead. TNO’s partners in PowerMatching City are: distribution system operator Enexis, energy company Essent, gas infrastructure company Gasunie, software company ICT Automatsering and energy consulting and testing & certification firm DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability, who also has the project lead. Knowledge partners are Eindhoven University of Technology, Delft University of Technology and Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen. Relevant Links Sustiania100 Press Info: http://www.sustainia.me/general-news/sustainia100-unveiled/ Sustainia100 List: http://www.sustainia.me/solutions/ EcoGrid website: http://www.eu-ecogrid.net/ EcoGrid Press Release: http://www.eu-ecogrid.net/index.php/events-and-news PowerMatching City: http://www.powermatchingcity.nl and http://www.agentschapnl.nl/sites/default/files/bijlagen/factsheet%20proeftuinen04-PowerMatching%20City-web.pdf PowerMatching City Press Release: http://www.dnvkema.com/news/articles/2012/PowerMatchingCityhonouredasatopsustainablesolutionatRio20.aspx PowerMatcher: www.powermatcher.net TNO: www.tno.nl "},{"title":"“Excellent paper” on Recent Results","url":"/Excellent-paper-on-Recent-Results/","date":"2012-07-26 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"“Excellent paper” on Recent Results At the general meeting of the IEEE Power and Energy Society in San Diego this week, the latest achievements with the PowerMatcher smart grid technology have been presented. The technology was honored a “World-Top Sustainable Solution” at the UN Sustainable Development Conference in Rio just a few weeks ago. Tangible results from two field experiments and three simulations studies are described in what has been called “an excellent paper” by one of the peer reviewers. The results presented show 60% more renewable energy can be integrated in the electricity system and how distribution grids can be designed up to three times smaller. Demand response and response of distributed generation will be a crucial part of power systems management in the future. Growing amounts of renewable energy sources need to be integrated while, at the same time, overloading of our ageing electricity networks needs to be avoided. The PowerMatcher provides an solution, as is shown in the overview of tangible results the article presents. The team of eight authors did a good job in presenting a huge amount of research work in an eight page paper according to the conference reviewers. “[T]he authors cover an amazing number of topics within their eight page study in a relatively easy-to-read manner”, according to one reviewer. “This is an excellent paper. Thank you!”, wrote another. Two projects involving TNO’s PowerMatcher technology are among the 100 most powerful sustainable solutions in the world gathered in the Sustainia100 list. This has been announced at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro last June. Both projects are sustainable electricity demonstration projects: the EcoGrid prototype of the European smart electricity grid and PowerMatching City, the first living smart grid community in the world. "},{"title":"Essent EV now PowerMatcher ready","url":"/Essent-EV-now-PowerMatcher-ready/","date":"2012-10-26 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"On March 31st, two of the two hundred all electrical Essent vehicles were equipped with the PowerMatcher Technology at InnoSys Delft BV. An Essent all electrical vehicleembedded PC containing the PowerMatcher software was built in both Volkwagen Golfs, as well a router with UMTS connection for the neccesay network connection. To top it off, a beautiful display in the trunk was installed as well. Tim de Lange of InnoSys did all the hard work and at the end of the day, in both cars all hardware was installed. These two cars will participate in the Integral field test that is currently running in Hoogkerk. Their driving range is approximately 200km on a full charge. Before the cars were picked up on Friday by Essent, Eric Bakker from Humiq and Bart Roossien from ECN did some last configuration to finalise the installation. With the latest version of the display software the Essent EVPowerMatcher is working in both cars since last Monday. The owners of these cars are now able to set the State-of-Charge that is requested as well a the maximum current that can be used to charge the batteries. Also, the owner can tell the PowerMatcher Agent at what time the battery must have reached the requested fill level. Display The PowerMatcher GUI application in the back of the car. "},{"title":"First results from PowerMatching City","url":"/First-results-from-PowerMatching-City/","date":"2012-10-26 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"Although PowerMatching city was officially opened in April this year (2012), it had to wait for the heating system to show its full potential. Last september, when the days got shorter and the nights colder, the heat demand of the households started to increase, requiring the micro-CHP and heat pump units to provide heat. Using thermal buffers filled with 200 liters of water, the flexibility of these systems is used to optimize the system. The first measurement campaign involved the reduction of imbalance caused by a wind turbine. This imbalance is caused by the difference between its predicted power output (24 hours ahead) and the realized power output as shown in the figure below. Imbalance is caused by the day-ahead forecasted power being not equal to the realized power of a wind turbine. The PowerMatcher technology was used to coordinate the CHPs and heat pumps to compensate this imbalance. Reduction of imbalance is benificial for everyone. There are less costs for the operator of the wind turbine, as imbalance is normally compensated by (expensive) gas fired turbines. Furthermore, reduction of imbalance is also a business opportunity for the end-customers of CHPs and heat pumps as they can share in these savings. During a two-week measurement campaign, the PowerMatching City cluster was able to reduce the imbalance of a single 15 kW wind turbine by 58%. Information More information about the experiment in Hoogkerk can be found at http://www.powermatchingcity.nl . "},{"title":"Heat pumps in Suburban Areas","url":"/Heat-pumps-in-Suburban-Areas/","date":"2012-10-26 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":" One of the challenges of the near future for a more renewable Dutch electricity infrastructure is the embedding of high concentrations of heat pumps in currently built domestic residences. In the Dutch situation demand of electricity occurs simultaneously with demand of heat, high electricity peak loads in the low voltage network are expected. Uncommonly for the Netherlands, in certain newly built areas there is no opportunity for a gas infrastructure. The power of the heat pump is typically 2.2 kW and the power of the electric resistance heating, which is available as a backup for cold days, is 6 kW. The peak power exceeds the power of 1.1 kVA, which is a characteristic value for a Dutch household at the distribution level. To facilitate such a newly built residential area, network distribution companies had to design an electricity network where electric power is served by two local distribution stations of 630 kVA which serve 124 houses equipped with heat pumps. Also an extra track for the medium voltage transmission level had to be constructed, raising total costs to about 1.5 M€. The question was raised whether a smart grid solution could decrease network reinforcements costs. Research is focussed on domestic residences with high peak loads at substations when heating is provided merely by heat pumps with additional electric resistance heating. Two scenarios are studied: the event of a black start in the electricity system and high electricity demand on a day with a very low outdoor temperature. The simulation is performed with eventually 100 agents representing up to 100 dwellings based on PowerMatcher technology. The results demonstrate significant peak load reduction can be achieved as shown in the figure below. In case of a black start PowerMatcher is able to maintain the maximum load at the substation below a certain maximum load as well as on a cold morning. It was also demonstrated this peak load reduction is at the expense of only a small decrease of comfort. Information More information about this study can be found at the smart proofs website and in the ECN newsletter of December 2010. Newsletter "},{"title":"FlexiblePower Alliance Network (FAN) prompts stakeholders in energy sector to develop joint standard","url":"/FAN-AMI-Smart-Metering-Publication-2013/","date":"2013-03-14 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"An article about the FAN and standard can be found here . "},{"title":"Overview of publications","url":"/Publications-overview/","date":"2013-06-01 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"The PowerMatcher: Smart Coordination for the Smart Electricity Grid Koen Kok, May 13, 2013 Book Download Overview of Achievements J.K. Kok, B. Roossien, P.A. MacDougall, O.P. Pruissen, G. Venekamp, I.G. Kamphuis, J.A.W Laarakkers, and C.J. Warmer, “ Dynamic Pricing by Scalable Energy Management Systems - Field Experiences and Simulation Results using PowerMatcher ”, IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting 2012, IEEE, 2012. Article Download Overview Article Koen Kok, Martin Scheepers, and René Kamphuis. Intelligence in electricity networks for embedding renewables and distributed generation. Chapter in: R.R. Negenborn, Z. Lukszo, and J. Hellendoorn, editors, Intelligent Infrastructures. Springer, Intelligent Systems, Control and Automation: Science and Engineering Series, 2009. To Appear end 2009. Website Springer Book Article Download Field Test Experiences Bart Roossien, Field-Test Upscaling of Multi-Agent Coordination in the Electricity Grid , Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution CIRED, IET-CIRED, 2009. Article Download Koen Kok, Zsofia Derzsi, Jaap Gordijn, Maarten Hommelberg, Cor Warmer, René Kamphuis, and Hans Akkermans. Agent-based electricity balancing with distributed energy resources, a multiperspective case study. In Ralph H. Sprague, editor, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, page 173, Los Alamitos, CA, USA, 2008. IEEE Computer Society. Article Download Bart Roossien, Maarten Hommelberg, Cor Warmer, Koen Kok, and Jan Willem Turkstra. Virtual power plant field experiment using 10 micro-CHP units at consumer premises . In SmartGrids for Distribution, CIRED Seminar, number 86. IET-CIRED, 2008. Article Download Early Articles In the early days of the PowerMatcher development, a seminal article has been presented at the AAMAS 2005 Conference. This article won an industry award and was part of an overview article in IEEE Intellgent Systems. The original AAMAS paper is still the best-cited paper on the PowerMatcher. Koen Kok, Cor Warmer, and René Kamphuis. The PowerMatcher: Multiagent control of electricity demand and supply . IEEE Intelligent Systems, 21(2):89–90, Part of overview article: “Agents in Industry: The Best from the AAMAS 2005 Industry Track’’. Koen Kok, Cor Warmer, and René Kamphuis. PowerMatcher: multiagent control in the electricity infrastructure . In AAMAS ’05: Proceedings of the 4th int. joint conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, volume industry track, pages 75–82, New York, NY, USA, 2005. ACM Press. Awarded one of the best industry contributions to AAMAS 2005. Article Download "},{"title":"EUW 2013 The Flexiblepower Alliance Network and Universal Smart Energy Framework","url":"/EUW2013-The-Flexiblepower-Alliance-Network/","date":"2013-10-15 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"Engarati published the FAN presentation given on the European utility week 2013. "},{"title":"EXE & Triodos are working on PowerMatcher technology in offices","url":"/PowerMatcher-will-be-used-in-offices/","date":"2014-10-14 00:00:00 +0100","categories":[],"body":"EXE , Triodos and Gelderland provice (The Netherlandds) are working together to implement PowerMatcher in Buildings. This allows optimizing energy production and consumption to integrate renewable energy. This movie explains more (in Dutch): "},{"title":"PowerMatcher ready for the EUW2014 with a new website and Github presence","url":"/PowerMatcher-ready-for-EUW2014/","date":"2014-11-03 00:00:00 +0000","categories":[],"body":"PowerMatcher community is online! After months of work, it time to promote the powermatcher online community! All code is online (on github) and the powermatcher community has a new website: powermatcher.org. Besides the code this website is hosted on Github ! Everybody is welcome to improve the software code or website! European utility week 2014 Come visit us at the EUW2014! Find out more on the open source PowerMatcher technology on the Energy experiance booth and in the talks. Smart Homes & End User Engagement SESSION 43: DR IN PRACTICE 6 nov 09.00-09.20 PowerMatching the Future PowerMatcher Stakeholder value proposition Insight in the future of PowerMatcher and PowerMatcher as the future Fields results Alexander Krstulovic, IT Consultant, Alliander 6 nov 09.40-10.00 A Generic Infrastructure for Coupling Flexible Devices and Demand Response Systems Removing silos will propel the entire industry, for appliances as well as services Flexible power application infrastructure as an open source Join the community: add your drivers or energy appand use all available resources Winifred Roggekamp, Domain Architect, Technolution B.V 6 nov 12.00-12.20 PowerMatcher & Consumer Behaviour Objectives and workings of PowerMatcher including results Make customers aware of the changes that will altertheir role in the future energy system Combining PowerMatcher and customer participation Arnoud Rijneveld, Innovator, Stedin Questions? Ask questions on Github or offline at the EUW2014! General question PowerMatcher question FPAI-core question "},{"title":"Why open source explaind","url":"/Why-open-source-explained/","date":"2014-11-13 00:00:00 +0000","categories":[],"body":"Why open source interview! Richard Beekhuis of TNO explained in an engerati interview (on the EUW2014) the reasons for the use of open source with the PowermatcherSuite. If you like to know more visit our “why open source” page ! "},{"title":"PowerMatcher and FPAI presentations online!","url":"/EUW2014-presentations-online/","date":"2014-11-21 00:00:00 +0000","categories":[],"body":"EUW 2014 presentations online! Check out the EUW 2014 presentations (click on the name): PowerMatching the Future Alexander Krstulovic, IT Consultant, Alliander PowerMatcher & Consumer Behaviour Arnoud Rijneveld, Innovator, Stedin A Generic Infrastructure for Coupling Flexible Devices and Demand Response Systems Winifred Roggekamp, Domain Architect, Technolution "}]}