Distributed ledger based control of large-scale, power grid energy resources

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a system comprising processors associated with plurality of ledgers together forming a secure, distributed transaction ledger, respective condensed datasets representative of respective Distributed Energy Resource (“DRE”)-specific information received from respective load controllers, wherein the respective DRE controllers are coupled to control a power-exchanging DER associated with a power grid, and wherein the respective condensed datasets are smaller in size than respective full datasets associated with the respective DER controllers;
• determining a global value and a step size based on the respective condensed datasets and a specified aggregated control action level;
• sending the global value and the step size to the respective DER controllers for use in adjusting respective local power consumptions of the respective DER controllers to satisfy the specified aggregated control action level;
• receiving respective updated condensed datasets from the respective DER controllers that update the respective condensed datasets, wherein the respective updated condensed datasets are based on the respective DER-specific information associated with the power-exchanging DER of the respective DER controllers after the adjusting of the respective local power consumptions in respective step directions determined by the respective DER controllers;
• and
• determining, from the respective updated condensed datasets, whether the respective DER controllers have satisfied the specified aggregated control action level to a defined extent, and in response to determining that the specified aggregated control action level has not been satisfied to the defined extent:
• determining an updated global value and an updated step size based on the respective updated condensed datasets and the specified aggregated control action level, and
• sending the updated global value and the updated step size to the respective DER controllers for use in further adjusting the respective local power consumptions to satisfy the specified aggregated control action level.

A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a load controller of a group of Distributed Energy Resource (“DER”) controllers, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

• communicating load-related power range data to a secure, distributed transaction ledger,
• wherein the load-related power range data from the DER controller and other load-related power range data from one or more other DER controllers of the group of distributed DER controllers are usable by the secure, distributed transaction ledger to determine initialization data that is to be received by the DER controller in response to the communicating of the load-related power range data, and is to be sent to the one or more other DER controllers;
• receiving the initialization data from the secure, distributed transaction ledger;
• determining condensed DER-specific information of a power-exchanging load managed by the DER controller based at least in part on the initialization data;
• communicating the condensed DER-specific information to the secure, distributed transaction ledger,
• wherein the condensed DER-specific information from the DER controller and other condensed DER-specific information from the one or more other DER controllers are usable by the secure, distributed transaction ledger to determine a step size and a global quantity (e.g., multiplier value) that are to be received by the DER controller in response to the communicating of the condensed DER-specific information and are to be sent to the one or more other DER controllers;
• receiving the step size and the global quantity from the secure, distributed transaction ledger;
• based on the step size and the global quantity from the secure, distributed transaction ledger, determining a step direction, adjusting the load power consumption in the step direction, determining current condensed DER-specific information after the adjusting of the load power consumption, and communicating the current condensed DER-specific information to the secure, distributed transaction ledger,
• wherein the current condensed DER-specific information from the DER controller and other current condensed DER-specific information from the one or more other DER controllers are usable by the secure, distributed transaction ledger to evaluate whether aggregated control action levels of the group of distributed DER controllers have converged to a defined convergence level, and in response to the aggregated control action levels being determined not to have converged to the defined convergence level, determining a new step size that replaces the step size and a new global quantity that replaces the global quantity based on the current condensed DER-specific information and the other current DER-specific information, and wherein the new step size and the new global quantity are to be received by the DER controller and sent to the other DER controllers;
• receiving the new step size and the new global quantity;
• and
• in response to the aggregated control action levels being determined to have converged to the defined convergence level, ending the operations until a later time.