Social network of smart-metered homes and SMEs for grid-based renewable energy exchange

Abstract

This paper proposes a revolutionary approach to Smart Energy Grids which empowers communities of consumers as first-class citizens with a novel role in the management of their electricity by sharing excess electricity and therefore becoming energy producers (prosumers). The approach makes innovations on smart technologies and processes by building a demand-response decision support system on top of smart metering and social web technologies. This is achieved using a framework to connect dynamic, context-aware, heterogeneous virtual and real entities on the Internet of Smart Meters (IoSM) and by studying the behavior of communities on it. The smart electricity meters are transformed into fully-fledged intelligent computers on the IoSM, enabled to (i) securely collect data from heterogeneous meters and sensors and actuators, (ii) detect smart meters with similar goals, (iii) exchange and aggregate data from multiple autonomous physical or virtual meters, and (iv) manage the actual energy demand and ensure the achievement of demand response for the community involved. The approach is centered on the community and its respective DSOs, where each prosumer is represented as a node on the IoSM through their electricity meters, sensors and actuators. This allows for rational energy exchange between technical and non-technical participants by expressing their goals in a standardized language through hybrid ontologies.