Situation-aware Demand Response in the smart grid

The vision of the smart grid can provide the catalyst for radical progress when combined with information technology systems that have the ability to collect fine grained power usage data and translated them into input for decision support systems, which may in turn make energy monitoring and conservation a seamless extension of Web technology. An important element of the smart grid is Demand Response (DR) which includes all modifications to the consumption patterns of end customers be they price-induced or incentive-based. In this paper we argue that the research field of situation management provides appropriate methods for identifying and predicting DR situations, reasoning on their status, and taking the necessary actions. We outline an intelligent situation management approach and present an event-based software architecture for supporting these aspects of the smart grid.