IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2016 - 88

Integrated
System
Planning

Grid
Operations

DSP

Market
Operations

figure 5. The concept of a DSP from Reforming the
Energy Vision order in New York.

Direct control by utilities is not feasible for the thousands
if not millions of distributed resources connected to the system. These resources could be individual PV installations on
a residence, an energy storage installation on the distribution
system, a full community microgrid with generation, or storage and dynamic loads. A hierarchical approach is necessary
for utilities to interact with these widely dispersed systems.
At the local level, distributed resource controllers must
manage their own generation and storage activities autonomously, based on local conditions, pre-established settings,
and owner preferences (primary control). However, these
distributed resources are meant to be active participants in
grid operations and must be coordinated with other sources
of flexible services both on the distribution system and on
the bulk power system.

Planning and
Network
Development

Power
System
Optimization

Long Term (One to Five Years)
Time Scales

This hierarchical approach can be described as hybrid combinations of five levels across multiple domains. The SGAM
was originally developed by the European community under
the M/490 effort. This model and the SGIP model are now
actively being harmonized. For instance, the SGIP model now
recognizes distributed resources as a domain, although a new
model diagram structure has not been finalized. There are obviously numerous new information exchange requirements that
require definitions based on application use cases. Examples
of these communication paths for information exchange are
shown in Figure 8.
The five levels are defined as follows:
✔ Level 1 DER Systems (green in Figure 8) is the lowest
level and includes the actual cyber-physical DER systems
themselves. These DER systems will be interconnected
to local grids at electrical connection points (ECPs) and
to the utility grid through the point of common coupling
(PCC) (the ECP and the PCC may be the same if the
DER is directly grid-connected). These DER systems
will usually be operated autonomously. In other words,
these DER systems will be running based on local conditions, such as photovoltaic systems operating when the
sun is shining, wind turbines operating when the wind is
blowing, electric vehicles charging when plugged in by
the owner, and diesel generators operating when started
up by the customer. This autonomous operation can be
modified by DER owner preferences, preset parameter,
and commands issued by utilities and aggregators.
✔ Level 2 Facility DER Management (blue in Figure 8) is
the next higher level in which a facility DER management system (FDEMS) manages the operation of the
Level 1 DER systems. This FDEMS may be managing
one or two DER systems in a residential home, but
more likely will be managing multiple DER systems
in commercial and industrial sites, such as university
campuses and shopping malls. Utilities may also use a

Operational
Planning

Short Term (Intraday to One Week)

<< Market Facilitator >>

Data Analysis
Ex-Post
Metering, Grid,
Settlement, Market
Post Actions

Real Time (After << Market
Closure, Including Emergency)

Midterm (One Month to One Year)
Viewpoints

Real-Time
Operation
(Including
Emergency)

and

<< Grid Optimizer >>

DGM Functions and
Basic Monitoring and Control Capabilities

Flexibility

figure 6. New smart business processes required in the integrated grid (evolvDSO, 2014).
88

ieee power & energy magazine

january/february 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2016