Project Title

Multi-Agent Systems modelling trials

Principal Investigator:

Dr Robu, Heriot-Watt University

Project Team:

• Professor Flynn, Heriot-Watt University
• Ms Andoni, Heriot-Watt University

Project Summary

Energy systems are increasingly becoming decentralised, more complex and challenging to manage and operate. Energy consumers are taking an active role in energy systems by becoming prosumers i.e. they may own local RES generation or battery energy storage systems and can manage their energy consumption and production. This project aims to design and evaluate a multi-agent) model for distributed energy systems to understand the interdependencies between consumers and energy market incentives. A fundamental benefit of MAS modelling is the investigation of the stability of large and complex systems and their emergent behaviours and characteristics, as a result of the interactions of multiple components/agents in the system. Agent-based modelling allows for a bottom-up modelling approach that starts with the definition of agent behaviours, who have their own local objectives and the ability to take actions in order to satisfy such local objectives.

In collaboration with communities and industry, we aim to design a MAS operational model, centred on a UK microgrid community, such as Findhorn. More specifically, this work aims to capture how energy management decision-making from individual prosumers leads to aggregate consumption models and emergent behaviours in a local energy system.

Published outcomes

Journal articles

Mokhtar, M, Robu, V, Flynn, D, Higgins, C, Whyte, J, Loughran, C & Fulton, F. (2019). Automating the Verification of the Low Voltage Network Cables and Topologies, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 11(2), pp 1657-1666.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2019.2941722

Elgamal, A., Kocher-Oberlehner, G., Robu, V. (2019). Optimization of a Multiple-Scale Renewable Energy-based Virtual Power Plant in the UK, Applied Energy, December 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113973

Conference papers

Merlinda Andoni, Valentin Robu, Wolf-Gerrit Früh, David Flynn.  2020. Strategic Decision-Making for Power Network Investments with Distributed Renewable Generation. In Proc. of the 19th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2020), Auckland, New Zealand, May 9–13, 2020, IFAAMAS, 9 pages.
URL: http://ifaamas.org/Proceedings/aamas2020/pdfs/p52.pdf
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