Digitalization has led to radical changes in the distribution of goods across various sectors. The tendency is to move from traditional buyer--seller markets to subscription-based on-demand "smart" matching platforms enabled by pervasive ICTs. The driving force behind this lies in the fact that assets, which were scarce in the past, are readily abundant, approaching a regime of zero marginal costs. This is also becoming a reality in electrified energy systems due to the substantial growth of distributed renewable energy sources such as solar and wind; the increasing number of small-scale storage units such as batteries and heat pumps; and the availability of flexible loads that enable demand-side management. In this context, this article proposes a system architecture based on a logical (cyber) association of spatially distributed (physical) elements as an approach to build a virtual microgrid operated as a software-defined energy network (SDEN) that is enabled by packetized energy management. The proposed cyber-physical system presumes that electrical energy is shared among its members and that the energy sharing is enabled in the cyber domain by handshakes inspired by resource allocation methods utilized in computer networks, wireless communications, and peer-to-peer Internet applications (e.g., BitTorrent). The proposal has twofold benefits: (i) reducing the complexity of current market-based solutions by removing unnecessary and costly mediations and (ii) guaranteeing energy access to all virtual microgrid members according to their individual needs. This article concludes that the proposed solution generally complies with the existing regulations but has highly disruptive potential to organize a dominantly electrified energy system in the mid- to long-term, being a technical counterpart to the recently developed social-oriented microgrid proposals.
翻译:数字化导致各部门货物分配发生巨大变化,趋势是从传统的买方-卖方市场转向普遍信通技术所促成的基于用户点点的“智能”“智能”匹配平台,其驱动力在于,过去稀缺的资产非常丰富,接近于零边价制度;由于太阳能和风等分布式可再生能源的大幅增长,这也成为了电气化能源系统的现实;电池和热泵等小型储存单位的数量增加;以及能够进行需求方管理的灵活负荷的可用性。在此背景下,本文章提出一个基于空间分布(物理)要素逻辑(网络)联系的系统架构,作为建立虚拟微电网的一种方法,作为软件定义能源零边际成本化的能源网络(SDEN)运作。 拟议的网络物理系统假定可再生能源在其成员之间共享,在网络领域通过计算机网络、无线通信和同行间虚拟化的配置方法激励进行能源分享,从而实现需求方能分享。