Software Defined Networking for Flexible and Green Energy Internet

Energy Internet is a vision of future power systems, which will achieve highly efficient interconnection among various types of energy resources, storage, and loads, and enable P2P energy delivery on a large scale. To enhance the flexibility and efficiency of Energy Internet, this article employs the methodology of SDN in Energy Internet and proposes an SDEI architecture. In the SDEI, the control, data, and energy planes are separated. The control plane dynamically reconfigures the data and energy planes and achieves flexible cooperation between them. We then focus on applying an SDN approach to energy router networking, and build a hierarchical energy control architecture that can implement the programmability of energy flow and allow P2P energy delivery from a high-level view. Additionally, we present a case study of future EVs, for which two applications within the SDEI framework are proposed to improve energy efficiency and green energy utilization.