ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

AESC has worked with the California Energy Commission and the Department of Energy on a variety of applications, which are described in the following project descriptions.

Intelligent Software Agents for Scheduling of Distributed Generation

In anticipation of the dynamic electric markets that was to be the key feature of the newly deregulated California electric marketplace; the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded AESC a contract in 1998 to explore using intelligent agent technology to control distributed generation (DG) assets. The resulting project was successful in demonstrating that agent technology could be used to schedule DG assets in response to market price signals. Demonstration software, developed as part of the project, showed how an agency of Smart*DER agents could collaborate to routinely collect the necessary inputs (i.e., pricing, weather data, etc.) and generate operating schedules that maximized the benefit of DG operation.

Demonstration of Intelligent Software Agents for Control & Scheduling of Distributed Energy Resources

The deregulated California electric marketplace was subsequently replaced by a newly regulated market with a strong emphasis on customer demand response and on efficient energy use. Understanding that Smart*DER technology could be useful in this new marketplace, the CEC awarded AESC a follow-on contract in 2000 to demonstrate Smart*DER technology in a “real-world” environment. During this project AESC updated and refined the Smart*DER agents in response to the evolving California marketplace and installed a Smart*DER system at the Los Angeles County Sanitation District’s Calabasas landfill. The Smart*DER based control operated successfully to schedule DER asset operation in response to a Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) further demonstrating the utility of Smart*DER technology.

Distributed Intelligent Agents for Decision Making at Local DER Levels

AESC received a 2003 Department of Energy Small Business Innovative Research grant to study application of agent technology to integration of distributed generation into the distribution system. During this effort, AESC worked closely with the Center for Networked Distributed Energy at Colorado State University to identify a hierarchy of intelligent agents needed for electric grid system control. At the distribution system level, this hierarchy of collaborating agents was termed a Power Neighborhood. AESC developed demonstration software that showed how a hierarchy of agents, working via a web-based auction process could routinely schedule operation of their DER assets in response to market prices or, if needed quickly reconfigure operation of their DER assets in response to a signal indicating eminent loss of power to their distribution feeder.

Agents for Renewables

The California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California ISO (CAISO) recognized that the planned construction of new/upgraded transmission facilities in the Tehachapi region of California will be unable to support the construction of new wind generation facilities in the next five to ten years. The goal of the CAISO is to deliver as much energy as possible from these renewable resources by taking advantage of all spare capacity available on the transmission system without exceeding the ratings of the facilities. Wind generation is an intermittent resource with the amount of energy available varying from minute to minute. Likewise, the available transmission capacity will also vary from minute to minute. The CAISO requires a solution that enhances both the visibility and dynamic control of these intermittent resources. To this end, the CEC awarded a contract to AESC to successfully apply and demonstrate that agent technology, when used with storage expands the potential delivery of renewable energy and increases the capacity and use. Specifically, AESC is currently working to develop and deploy an agent-based system that can successfully control Flywheel storage technology to improve the dynamic control of the wind generation resources as well as coordinate energy production and delivery from wind generation.

CEC Energy Innovation Small Grant Program Support

AESC was a member of California Energy Commission’s Energy Innovation Small Grant Program Technical Review Board (EISG PTRB) and provides technical assistance for program design and project awards portfolio management. This program provides grants to developers of energy technologies including those in energy efficiency. As a PTRB member, AESC reviews and awards grant proposals according to EISG program goals and milestones. Currently AESC is working closely with program administrators in developing an EISG program framework for portfolio management of the grant awards.