Smart grid communication at the interface of customer buildings with focus on demand response

Traditional power grids lack an appropriate infrastructure to link the involved stakeholders and domains for balancing energy demand and supply. The transmission infrastructure is hierarchically oriented with active bulk generators and passive consumers. Therefore, a bidirectional communication system is needed, which is an essential component of the future smart grid. However, a set of requirements and challenges has to be addressed in order to realize the intended communication infrastructure. In this work, a multi-agent system architecture is presented that tackles these requirements. With a focus on customer buildings and demand response communication patterns, an interoperable and scalable as well as standardized system is defined, which uses the Internet Protocol as central element in the communication stack. OASIS Energy Interoperation standard is used as agent communication language for data exchange between smart grid stakeholders. Furthermore, a proof-of-concept implementation is realized to illustrate the functional capability of the presented approach.