Enabling energy micro-management through
ICT
Fabrice Saffre
Reducing the need for travel
Reducing the need for “material goods”
manufacturing and transport
Demand Side Management (DSM)
• Demand-side management (DSM) programs consist of the
planning, implementing, and monitoring activities that are
designed to encourage consumers to modify their level and
pattern of electricity usage.
70,000
35,000
60,000
30,000
50,000
25,000
40,000
20,000
30,000
15,000
20,000
10,000
10,000
5,000
0
0
1989
1993
Energy Savings
1997
2001
Actual Peakload Reduction
2005
• Combines:
– Energy Efficiency
– Load Management
Megawatts
Million Kilowatthours
Source: US Energy Information Administration
• Needs new
techniques and
practices to reach
full potential
Load Management
• Contractual agreement giving the utility system operator
the power to shape consumer load at peak time, through
direct or indirect control (applies primarily to commercial
and industrial consumers)
• Price incentives to move the flexible load to off-peak
periods
– Applicable to residential consumers but…
– By definition, it requires that the end-user is informed of (and
able to act upon) price differentials
– This effectively limits DSM to simplistic, “coarse-grained”
pricing strategies (e.g. “day-rate” vs. “night-rate”)
– Mostly suitable to macro-management
Demand-side macro-management
Source: UK National Grid
50000
45000
35000
30000
25000
"Normal" load (real data 18-06-07)
:0
0
:3
0
21
:0
0
:3
0
18
:0
0
:3
0
15
:0
0
:3
0
12
:0
0
:3
0
09
:0
0
06
:3
0
:0
0
:3
0
03
:3
0
:0
0
20000
00
Megawatt
40000
After DSM (hypothetical)
Impact
• Total demand on the grid is unchanged, but it is more
homogeneously distributed over time
• Can potentially contribute to reducing carbon emissions
through downscaling and optimisation of the power
generation infrastructure (currently designed to support
peak-load)
• Provides some opportunities for ICT, e.g. at the interface of
smart metering and billing
• However, it does not directly improve our ability to use
micro-generation and/or unpredictable renewable sources
Demand-side micro-management
4
3.5
3.5
3
3
Kilowatts
4
Alice's laundry
Bob's laundry
Carol's laundry
Alice's laundry
Bob's laundry
:0
0
:3
0
21
18
:3
0
:0
0
:0
0
15
:3
0
:0
0
:3
0
12
:0
0
:3
0
09
:3
0
06
03
Base load
:0
0
:0
0
:0
0
:3
0
:0
0
:3
0
21
18
:3
0
:0
0
:0
0
:3
0
15
:3
0
12
09
:3
0
:0
0
:3
0
06
:3
0
03
Base load
:0
0
1.5
:0
0
1.5
:0
0
2
:0
0
2
:3
0
00
2.5
:3
0
2.5
00
Kilowatts
• Fine-grained scheduling of individual energy-consuming
processes
• Potentially makes a big difference, if applied to local
communities
Carol's laundry
But even better…
• Demand-side micro-management makes it possible to
shape the load so as to match the local energy supply
• The output of (renewable) micro-generation can be
factored in…
4
1
0.9
0.8
Kilowatts (supply)
Kilowatts (supply)
3.5
3
2.5
2
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
Grid
Alice's solar panels
Bob's wind turbine
Alice's solar panels
:0
0
:0
0
:0
0
Bob's wind turbine
19
:0
0
:0
0
18
:0
0
:0
0
17
:0
0
16
:0
0
:0
0
:0
0
15
:0
0
:0
0
14
:0
0
:0
0
13
:0
0
:0
0
12
:0
0
:0
0
11
:0
0
:0
0
10
:0
0
:0
0
09
:0
0
08
21
:3
0
:0
0
:0
0
:3
0
18
:0
0
:3
0
15
:0
0
:3
0
12
:0
0
:3
0
09
:0
0
:3
0
06
:3
0
:0
0
0
03
00
:3
0
:0
0
1.5
But even better…
2
1.8
1.8
1.6
1.6
1.4
1.4
1.2
1.2
Kilowatts
2
1
0.8
1
0.8
0.4
0.4
0.2
0.2
0
0
From Alice's solar panels
From Bob's wind turbine
From the grid
08
:
00
:0
0
09
:0
0:
00
10
:0
0:
00
11
:0
0:
00
12
:0
0:
00
13
:0
0:
00
14
:0
0:
00
15
:0
0:
00
16
:0
0:
00
17
:0
0:
00
18
:0
0:
00
19
:0
0:
00
0.6
00
:0
0
09
:0
0:
00
10
:0
0:
00
11
:0
0:
00
12
:0
0:
00
13
:0
0:
00
14
:0
0:
00
15
:0
0:
00
16
:0
0:
00
17
:0
0:
00
18
:0
0:
00
19
:0
0:
00
0.6
08
:
Kilowatts
• Demand-side micro-management makes it possible to
shape the load so as to match the local energy supply
• The output of (renewable) micro-generation can be
factored in…
From Alice's solar panels
From Bob's wind turbine
From the grid
Implementation
• ICT is a key enabler to any micro-scale combination of
power generation and demand-side management
• The whole concept relies upon the ability to
– Collect and share information about the current and/or
predicted output of local renewable sources
– Identify and evaluate opportunities to redistribute the flexible
load so as to maximise autonomy from the grid
– Implement the preferred schedule by instructing “smart”
appliances to start/pause/resume queuing processes
• This can be done from a control centre using “brute force”
to compute the optimal solution
• Recent research suggests that a decentralised approach
using negotiation between software agents is also feasible
Alternatively…
Ready!
Sta
nd
by
Bob
Carol
The
Internet
Alice
Dave
Alternatively…
Bob
Carol
The
Internet
Alice
Dave
Conclusions
• ICT offers obvious opportunities for substituting information
transfer to physical movement
• This is actually where we could make the biggest
difference in the short to medium term
• However, the war against climate change has to be fought
on several fronts and over multiple timescales
• In the long run, reducing our society’s appetite for energy
may be unavoidable
• Automated management of the flexible demand and an
increased ability to tap into renewable sources could be
the key to a soft landing…
Thank you