Micro Grids and Internet-of-Energy

Micro-generation in its various forms, photovoltaic, micro-wind and micro-CHP to name the primary technologies, is steadily gaining market share and is growing in popularity with energy policy makers. The supply sources may include traditional power plants, Micro Turbines, fuel cells, PV plants, Wind plants and other small-scale renewable generators, storage devices, and controllable end-use loads. A Micro Grid is a semiautonomous grouping of generating sources and end-use sinks that are placed and operated for the benefit of its members (producers, consumers, prosumers and communities) in compliance with the environmental, social and sustainable growth requirements. In particular, Micro Grids are expected to supply electrical energy with consumer-based energy management services. They may act as a mean for tailoring the energy affordance to the changing habits and needs of the final users (users/citizens but in particular the communities). The paper presents the first results of an ongoing research jointly carried out by scientific and entrepreneurship groups regarding the ICT applications for Energy Management Services (EMS) in Micro Grids. By giving users proactive roles in energy operation management through the modelling and forecasting of consumers and communities behaviour, the underlined R&D activities are expected to extend the typical features of Electrical Power Systems towards a so called Internet of Energy paradigm.