Sustainable Virtual Utilities Based on Microgrids

Abstract

Next generation of energy systems, being dependant on Renewable Energy Resources (RES) and Distributed Generation (DG), will typically be based on flexible virtual cells of cells of balanced power consumption – generation, that is microgrids, rather than present day vertical hierarchical grid systems. Furthermore, the supporting information infrastructure and nonlinear dependencies will pose new dependability challenges to the systems involved. As a consequence, we have to decouple present day proprietary hierarchical SCADA systems into sets of services that allow for horizontal as well as vertical integration supporting operations and business models of future virtual utilities. The virtual utilities are integrating two critical infrastructures; power grids and cyber networks. To allow for this flexibility and assuring dependability we argue that the underlying infrastructures should be modelled as Service Oriented Architectures (SOA). We propose in this paper a methodology towards ensuring quality of service in virtual utilities based on microgrids.