A prototypical tool for the optimisations of energy production and consumption at the neighbourhood level

Smart low-voltage grids support the successful integration of Renewable Energy Sources at the neighbourhood level. Bidirectional energy management systems may support the automated exploitation of load shifting or virtual storage potentials in low-voltage grids[1]. Recently, more sophisticated approaches to load management in smart grids aim to use weather-predictive controls and wide area load management [2]. One of the wide area load management approaches is Demand Side Management. It intends to improve the energy system at the consumption side [3]. This paper describes a prototypical implementation, which calculates optimal load shifting profiles for a group of buildings, in a neighbourhood context according to the following management priorities: 1) Local Distributed Energy Resources surplus compensation in the neighbourhood; 2) Cost effective load shifting following electricity price; 3) Peak load shaving in the local electricity grid. This prototype implements an emergency load reduction and energy monitoring use case through the OGEMA (Open Gateway Energy Management Alliance) platform. The prototype supports the evaluation of the optimal integration of renewable energy sources, actual contributions of demand response as well as load shifting management. To determine the effectiveness and applicability of the optimisation approach, two criteria are taken into account: On the one hand the quality of optimisation of the on-site use of energy provided by intermittent power sources and on the other hand the utilisation of the production peaks in the electric grid which may not coincide with the on-site production.