A distributed agent based mechanism for shaping of aggregate demand on the smart grid

For electrical grid systems with significant levels of intermittent renewables it will be essential to shape aggregate demand to match periods of cheap renewable supply. For example, the Irish grid will have approximately 40% of its electricity coming from intermittent wind turbines by 2020. Currently at 18%, the turbines are curtailed when they reach 50% of instantaneous supply for control reasons. This could be avoided if the aggregate demand could be shaped to follow these periods of high renewable supply. This paper develops a distributed agent based mechanism for shaping of aggregate demand on the smart grid. Our previous work developed two set point control algorithms that a transformer agent implements to keep the aggregate demand from going above the maximum limit of the transformer. We now extend this to enable the transformer agent to shape the aggregate demand over the 24 hour period. Since the demand is now constrained to a given shape, we must ensure the utility of the devices being charged. We develop an urgency protocol with inherent backoff that each device agent implements to guarantee the utility of its device. Finally, we develop a method for the transformer agent to determine the bounds of shape that the network will tolerate.