IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - July 2021 - 10

Virtual Microgrid
Management via
Software-Defined
Energy Network
for Electricity
Sharing
Benefits and Challenges
by Pedro H. J. Nardelli, Hafiz Majid Hussain, Arun Narayanan, and Yongheng Yang
D
10
igitalization has led to radical changes in
the distribution of goods across various
sectors. The tendency is to move from traditional
buyer-seller markets to subscriptionbased,
on-demand " smart " matching
platforms enabled by pervasive information and communications
technologies (ICTs). The driving force behind this
lies in the fact that assets, which were scarce in the past,
are readily abundant, approaching a regime of zero marginal
costs. This is also becoming a reality in electrified energy
systems because of the substantial growth of distributed
renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind; the
increasing number of small-scale storage units, such as batteries
and heat pumps; and the availability of flexible loads
that enable demand-side management (DSM).
In this context, this article proposes a system architecture
based on a logical (cyber) association of spatially distributed
(physical) elements as an approach to build a
virtual microgrid operated as a software-defined energy
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSMC.2021.3062018
Date of current version: 15 July 2021
IEEE SYSTEMS, MAN, & CYBERNETICS MAGAZINE
July 2021
network (SDEN) that is enabled by packetized energy management
(PEM). The proposed cyberphysical system presumes
that electrical energy is shared among its members
and that the energy sharing is enabled in the cyberdomain
by handshakes inspired by resource allocation methods
utilized in computer networks, wireless communications,
and peer-to-peer Internet applications (e.g., BitTorrent).
The proposal's benefits are twofold: 1) it reduces the complexity
of current market-based solutions by removing
unnecessary and costly mediations, and 2) it guarantees
energy access to all virtual microgrid members according
to their individual needs. This article concludes that the
proposed solution generally complies with the existing regulations
but has the highly disruptive potential to organize
a dominantly electrified energy system in the mid-to long
term, being a technical counterpart to the recently developed
social-oriented microgrid proposals.
Introduction
The astonishing development of ICTs has brought widespread
changes, not only in the way people live and interact
but also in how society and the economy are organized.
2333-942X/21©2021IEEE

IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Magazine - July 2021

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