Method and apparatus for performing energy management in a power supply grid

A method for performing an energy management in a power supply grid comprising distributed energy resources (ER) having energy resource controllers (ERC) connected to at least one control unit (CU) by means of a communication network (CNW), comprising the steps of:

• (a) monitoring the communication links (CL) between said at least one control unit (CU) and the energy resource controllers (ERC) via said communication network (CNW);
• (b) calculating a predicted operation behavior of an energy resource (ER) if a loss or limitation of communication of the communication link (CL) between the energy resource controller (ERC) of the affected energy resource (ER) and the control unit (CU) is detected;
• (c) controlling, using the control unit (CU), energy resource controllers (ERC) of other energy resources (ER) of a power supply grid (PSG) to which a communication link (CL) via said communication network (CNW) still exists based on the calculated predicted behavior of the affected energy resource (ER) whose energy resource controller (ERC) has at least partially lost its communication link (CL) to said control unit (CU) or where the communication bandwidth of the communication link (CL) is limited;
• (d) calculating, using the control unit (CU), energy management policies and distributing them to the energy resource controllers (ERC) of said energy management system such that after the loss or the limitation of communication between said control unit (CU) and at least one affected energy resource controller (ERC) has been detected, the distributed energy management policies executed by the energy resource controllers (ERC) provide collectively sufficient power for power supply grid services, wherein the control unit (CU) calculates and distributes the energy management policies for at least one energy resource controller (ERC) more than once during operation of the energy management system;
• and
• wherein the energy resource controller (ERC) to which the loss or limitation of communication of said communication link (CL) is detected is adapted to perform a local control of the associated energy resource (ER), and wherein the energy resource of the energy resource controller to which the loss or limitation of communication of said communication link (CL) is detected makes a contribution to the operation of the power supply grid;
• wherein the energy management policies calculated by at least one processor of said control unit (CU) are calculated depending on predicted local energy states of the energy resources (ER) controlled by the distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) after the loss or limitation of communication of at least one monitored communication link (CL) has occurred;
• and
• wherein the predicted local energy states of the energy resources (ER) controlled by the distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) are predicted on the basis of available global information including a power supply grid frequency, available local information including weather information and available historic behavior data about a past operation behavior of the respective energy resources (ER) before the loss or limitation of communication of the at least one monitored communication link (CL) has been detected;
• wherein the predicted operation behavior of the respective energy sources (ER) is calculated in a possible implementation in real time after the loss or limitation of the communication link has been detected;
• wherein said set of energy management policies comprises at least one energy management policy having rules used by a policy management unit (PMU) connected to the energy resource controller (ERC) to perform the local control of the associated energy resource (ER).

An energy management system of a power supply grid (PSG), comprising:

• at least one control unit (CU) connected to distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) of energy resources (ER) of the power supply grid (PSG) by means of a communication network (CNW), wherein the control unit (CU) monitors communication links (CL) between the control unit (CU) and the energy resource controllers (ERC) via the communication network (CNW);
• wherein the control unit (CU) is adapted to calculate a predicted operation behavior of an energy resource controlled by an energy resource controller (ERC) when a loss of communication or a communication bandwidth limitation of the monitored communication link (CL) to the energy resource controller (ERC) is detected;
• wherein the control unit (CU) is adapted to control energy resource controllers (ERC) of other energy resources (ER) of said power supply grid (PSG) to which a communication link (CL) via said communication network (CNW) still exists based on the calculated predicted behavior of the affected energy resource (ER) whose energy resource controller (ERC) has lost its communication link (CL) to said control unit (CU) or where the communication bandwidth of the communication link (CL) is limited;
• wherein said control unit (CU) is further adapted to calculate energy management policies and to distribute them to the energy resource controllers (ERC) of said energy management system such that after the loss or the limitation of communication between said control unit (CU) and at least one affected energy resource controller (ERC) has been detected, the distributed energy management policies executed by the energy resource controllers (ERC) provide collectively sufficient power for power supply grid services, wherein the control unit (CU) calculates and distributes the energy management policies for at least one energy resource controller (ERC) more than once during operation of the energy management system;
• wherein the energy resource controller (ERC) to which the loss or limitation of communication of said communication link (CL) is detected is adapted to perform a local control of the associated energy resource (ER), and wherein the energy resource of the energy resource controller to which the loss or limitation of communication of said communication link (CL) is detected makes a contribution to the operation of the power supply grid;
• wherein the energy management policies calculated by at least one processor of said control unit (CU) are calculated depending on predicted local energy states of the energy resources (ER) controlled by the distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) after the loss or limitation of communication of at least one monitored communication link (CL) has occurred;
• wherein the predicted local energy states of the energy resources (ER) controlled by the distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) are predicted on the basis of available global information including a power supply grid frequency;
• and
• wherein said set of energy management policies comprises a first energy management policy having rules used by the policy management unit (PMU) of the energy resource controller (ERC) during a predetermined time period directly after a loss or limitation of communication has occurred and a second energy management policy having rules used by the policy management unit (PMU) of the energy resource controller (ERC) after the predetermined time period has expired.

An energy management system of a power supply grid (PSG), comprising:

• at least one control unit (CU) connected to distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) of energy resources (ER) of the power supply grid (PSG) by means of a communication network (CNW), wherein the control unit (CU) monitors communication links (CL) between the control unit (CU) and the energy resource controllers (ERC) via the communication network (CNW);
• wherein the control unit (CU) is adapted to calculate a predicted operation behavior of an energy resource controlled by an energy resource controller (ERC) when a loss of communication or a communication bandwidth limitation of the monitored communication link (CL) to the energy resource controller (ERC) is detected;
• wherein the control unit (CU) is adapted to control energy resource controllers (ERC) of other energy resources (ER) of said power supply grid (PSG) to which a communication link (CL) via said communication network (CNW) still exists based on the calculated predicted behavior of the affected energy resource (ER) whose energy resource controller (ERC) has lost its communication link (CL) to said control unit (CU) or where the communication bandwidth of the communication link (CL) is limited;
• wherein said control unit (CU) is further adapted to calculate energy management policies and to distribute them to the energy resource controllers (ERC) of said energy management system such that after the loss or the limitation of communication between said control unit (CU) and at least one affected energy resource controller (ERC) has been detected, the distributed energy management policies executed by the energy resource controllers (ERC) provide collectively sufficient power for power supply grid services, wherein the control unit (CU) calculates and distributes the energy management policies for at least one energy resource controller (ERC) more than once during operation of the energy management system;
• wherein the energy resource controller (ERC) to which the loss or limitation of communication of said communication link (CL) is detected is adapted to perform a local control of the associated energy resource (ER), and wherein the energy resource of the energy resource controller to which the loss or limitation of communication of said communication link (CL) is detected makes a contribution to the operation of the power supply grid;
• wherein the energy management policies calculated by at least one processor of said control unit (CU) are calculated depending on predicted local energy states of the energy resources (ER) controlled by the distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) after the loss or limitation of communication of at least one monitored communication link (CL) has occurred;
• wherein the predicted local energy states of the energy resources (ER) controlled by the distributed energy resource controllers (ERC) are predicted on the basis of available global information including a power supply grid frequency;
• and
• wherein after a loss or a limitation of communication of the communication link (CL) to said control unit (CU) has occurred said policy management unit (PMU) of the energy resource controller (ERC) is adapted to emulate a continued reception of control parameters from said control unit (CU) on the basis of the active set of energy management policies and to perform a continued local control of the associated energy resource (ER) controlled by said energy resource controller (ERC) using the control parameters within control limits indicated by the set of energy management policies.