A Flexible and Holistic Multi-Agent Framework for Local Energy Aggregation Approaches

A growing number of communities have expressed a desire for self-sufficiency and the reduction of carbon emissions. These are two of the reasons why the interest of self-governed local energy community approaches has caught the attention of many. In [2], the notion of locality is kept rather vague. However, often the range of a low- or medium-voltage grid level is chosen for, e.g., local energy market designs [1], which coincides with the locality definition in this paper. A key difference between these concepts lies in the coordination approach. For instance, local energy markets focus on utilising market mechanisms, while other aggregation concepts, such as energy cells, rely on more technical approaches and may directly control assets to optimise energy consumption. This paper refers to these methodologies as local aggregation approaches. The goal of this paper is to provide a holistic and flexible model of local aggregation approaches, which provides structure during the design phase, but leaves enough flexibility to allow for adjustments, according to the local communities' needs and capabilities. Throughout this paper, a holistic model refers to a model, which operates in its whole local spectrum (e.g., a low-voltage grid), summarising all major entities and their concerns. The contributions of this paper are: (1) An approach for the development of a holistic model of local aggregation approaches, allowing a coherent realisation of variations, such as virtual power plants or energy islands (2) A holistic model which allows the integration of: (a) Infrastructure provider signalling for intelligent grid operation, such as flexible grid tariffs (b) Communication with external entities, such as the wholesale market (c) Coordination algorithms adjusted to the local environment (d) Strategies for preference maximisation on the consumer level