Coordinated Resource Management of Cyber-Physical-Social Power Systems

Abstract:

Critical infrastructure systems – electricity grids, transportation networks, gas and water distribution networks – serve the needs of millions of people with extraordinary reliability. These large-scale systems comprise 106 − 108 individual elements (humans and hardware) whose actions are inconsequential in isolation but profoundly important in aggregate. This proposal focuses on coordination of these elements in smart infrastructure systems with integrated ubiquitous sensing, communications, computation, and control. While we focus on electricity grids, the general framework we develop will be broadly applicable to other CPS critical infrastructure applications. Our central construct is that of a resource cluster, which is a collection of distributed resources (ex: microgeneration, storage,  deferrable loads), that can be coordinated to efficiently and reliably offer services (ex: power delivery) in the face of uncertainty (ex: renewables, consumers). Our key innovation is the construct of a cluster manager which coordinates a set of resources and represents their aggregate capability to the system operator while explicitly accounting for uncertainty. Our goal is to create fundamental CPS engineering innovations to transform distribution systems into predictable, controllable and reliable aggregations of supply, demand and storage resources.

Intellectual Merit

This proposal brings together a multidisciplinary research team to develop new engineering tools that integrate ideas from economics and behavioral science into frameworks grounded in control theory and power systems. We propose novel approaches to the coordinated management of large numbers of stochastic resources to offer reliable performance. The intellectual merit is derived from our innovative combination of game theory, stochastic optimization tools, and experimental economics to engineer tomorrow’s cyber-physical-social Smart Grid. These innovations will dramatically improve the operation of infrastructure systems that face complex dynamics (both physical and social) and resource uncertainty. In essence, we will develop the theoretical foundations for a widely applicable cyber-physical-social approach to the problem of resource allocation in complex infrastructures.

Broader Impacts

The societal impact of our work will come from an increased understanding of how to transform the role of people from passive service recipients to active participants that serve systemic needs of critical infrastructure. These innovations will facilitate advances in the electricity grid that are critical to realizing energy security for the nation, achieving carbon emissions targets, and mitigating global climate change. The technological impact of our research will stem from: (a) our architecture that enables distributed decision-making in large-scale power networks, (b) algorithms to efficiently manage and control large numbers of distributed grid resources at various time-scales and (c) real-time coordination strategies that are applicable to other domains, in particular transportation.Our work will have educational impact at several levels. We will engage K-12 students through lab-visits and lectures; address the undergraduate demand for power systems training through curricular innovations at the intersection of cyber-systems engineering and physical power systems; and equip graduate students with the multi-disciplinary training in power systems, communications, control, optimization and economics to become leaders in innovation. We hope to inspire students to join us in our collective conviction that science and technology are vital in addressing critical societal problems.

Keywords: Cyber-physical-social systems, smart grid, renewables, coordination, aggregation

  • CPS Domains
  • Energy Sector
  • Smart Grid
  • Communication
  • Testing
  • Control
  • Energy
  • Modeling
  • Systems Engineering
  • Critical Infrastructure
  • Real-Time Coordination
  • Wireless Sensing and Actuation
  • Validation and Verification
  • CPS Technologies
  • Foundations
  • National CPS PI Meeting 2013
  • 2013
  • Poster
  • Academia
  • CPS PI Poster Session
Submitted by Duncan Callaway on Wed, 10/23/2013 - 15:16