Abstract-In this paper, we present Overgrid, a fully distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture designed to automatically control and implement distributed demand response (DR) schemes in a community of smart buildings with energy generation and storage capabilities. As overlay networks in communications establish logical links between peers regardless of the physical topology of the network, the Overgrid is able to apply some power balance criteria to its system of buildings, as they belong to a virtual microgrid, regardless of their physical location. We exploit an innovative distributed algorithm, called flow updating, for monitoring the power consumption of the buildings and the number of nodes in the network, proving its applicability in an Overgrid scenario with realistic power profiles and networks of up to 10 000 buildings. To quantify the energy balance capability of Overgrid, we first study the energy characteristics of several types of buildings in our university campus and in an industrial site to accurately provide some reference buildings models. Then, we classify the amount of "flexible" energy consumption, i.e., the quota that could be potentially exploited for DR programs. Finally, we validate Overgrid emulating a real P2P network of smart buildings behaving according to our reference models. The experimental results prove the feasibility of our approach. Note to Practitioners-In this paper, we propose a scalable solution for supporting distributed load control in a community of smart buildings, whose deployment requires minimal communication overhead and no dedicated investments for the control network. The control system, called Overgrid, is implemented over an unstructured peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay based on gossiping, a commonly used paradigm allowing a strong and scalable information diffusion (fault tolerant) across the network, totally decentralized, and with low network overhead. Overgrid creates the P2P network over the electrical grid (thus the name Overgrid), in which the management of electrical loads is carried out by the nodes participating in the network through innovative distributed algorithms. We exploit a one-year study of power consumption traces in a reference industrial site and simulation-based traces for residential buildings, in order to test the effectiveness of our solution in realistic scenarios.
To automatically control and implement distributed DR REF , the authors proposed Overgrid, a distributed peer-to-peer architecture.
Overgrid: A Fully Distributed Demand Response Architecture Based on Overlay Networks
IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
Computer Science