Power Systems Simulation Using Ontologies to Enable the Interoperability of Multi-Agent Systems

A key challenge in the power and energy field is the development of decision-support systems that enable studying big problems as a whole. The interoperability between systems that address specific parts of the global problem is essential. Ontologies ease the interoperability between heterogeneous systems providing semantic meaning to the information exchanged between the various parties. The use of ontologies within Smart Grids has been proposed based on the Common Information Model, which defines a common vocabulary describing the basic components used in electricity transportation and distribution. However, these ontologies are focused on utilities needs. The development of ontologies that allow the representation of diverse knowledge sources is essential, aiming at supporting the interaction between entities of different natures, facilitating the interoperability between these systems. This paper proposes a set of ontologies to enable the interoperability between different types of simulators, namely regarding electricity markets, the smart grid, and residential energy management. A case study based on real data shows the advantages of the proposed approach in enabling comprehensive power system simulation studies.