Distributed coordination of smart devices to mitigate intermittency of renewables for a smarter grid

Challenge:  

Manage demand-supply imbalance in the power grid with a high degree of intermittent renewable energy (solar and wind) without using expensive batteries

Solution:  

Providing Virtual Energy Storage (VES) through demand manipula/on of consumer loads, while maintaining consumers’ quality of service 

Three innovations: 

• Time-scale separation for resource allocation 
• Distributed coordination without inter- agent communication by using local measurements that provide global information, such as deviation of grid frequency from 60 Hz 
• Randomized control to break the complexity barrier of devices. combinatorial optimization involved in decision making for a large collection of on/off devices

Scientific Impact:  

• Distributed coordination of “agents” to obtain reliable aggregate behavior that is robust to benign and malicious failures. 
• Break the complexity barrier involved in a class  of  combinatorial optimization problems 

Broader Impact:  

• Integration of higher amounts of renewable energy into the grid without the use of expensive batteries 
• Training of graduate and undergraduate students 
• Dissemination nationally and internationally, especially to the utility Industry (OUC, FPL, EDF(France))