Washington, DC - The evolving smart grid, with increased use of renewable energy generation technologies, offers the potential for significant efficiency improvements through market-based transactive exchanges between energy producers and energy consumers. To understand this potential and support technology developers and policy makers, the smart grid community will require simulation tools and platforms that can be used to explore the impact of alternative ways to create and operate transactive energy systems.
The U.S. Department of Energy Gridwise Architecture Council has published a Transactive Energy Framework that defines TE broadly as, “a system of economic and control mechanisms that allows the dynamic balance of supply and demand across the entire electrical infrastructure using value as a key operational parameter.” The Transactive Energy Modeling and Simulation Challenge for the Smart Grid (“TE Challenge”) brings researchers and companies with simulation tools together with utilities, product developers, and other grid stakeholders to create and demonstrate modeling and simulation platforms while applying TE approaches to real grid problems. The products of the challenge will help the industry better understand the potential for TE and create a path for real-world trial implementations.
The TE Challenge has being initiated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and developed in collaboration with federal partners and industry. The TE Challenge formally started with a September 10-11, 2015 Kickoff event. There will then be an Interim Coordination and Team Building Meeting in December, 2015 to encourage team progress and build new teams, and then Summit Meetings in Spring and Fall of 2016. The Summits will allow teams to present their work and successes.
Timeline
- TE Challenge Preparatory Workshop (March 2015) was held to vet the concept with industry stakeholders and design the Challenge.
- Website and Collaboration Site online (July 2015) The Collaboration Site includes resources, team information, and links to JOIN the TE Challenge.
- Kickoff Meeting for team formation (September 10-11, 2015 at NIST) successfully launched the Challenge. Five initial teams were formed.
- Midpoint Coordination and Team Building Meeting (December 3-4)
- Summit Expo/Report out (April-May 2016) Goal is to present the good work that has been done and consider next steps.
- Second Expo/Report (September 2016) – this second summit was proposed since some participants might be starting from scratch and only able to produce valuable results on a longer time frame; participants have the option to attend either summit.
Challenge Goals
- Development and enhancement of modeling and simulation tools and integration into modeling and simulation platforms for TE evaluation.
- Demonstration of how different TE approaches maybe used to improve reliability and efficiency of the electric grid for different grid challenges and scenarios.
- Development of a set of scenarios that can serve as ongoing reference points for modeling and simulation.
- Development of TE community—increasing the number of organizations and individuals working together and sharing data and knowledge to cooperatively advance TE.
- Development of the foundation for utility pilots and successful TE implementations. This includes modeling and simulation advancements as well as communications with utilities, regulators and policymakers about TE.
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Provision of a stage (the Challenge Summit meetings and media) where teams can present the exciting work they have accomplished.
Who should participate (and how you will benefit)
The Challenge is for all who have some stake in TE, and specifically in advancing modeling and simulation tools and application of those tools: academics, utilities, ISOs/RTOs, companies and government(technologists, regulators, officials).
Participants benefit in many ways. They will receive opportunities to:
- Collaborate with potential partners
- Showcase tools, talent and capability
- Receive critical review and feedback
- Receive publicity from the Challenge
- Connect with potential customers
- Demonstrate thought leadership
- Demonstrate the benefit of new concepts
TE Challenge Collaboration Site
The TE Challenge Collaboration Site is where you can see who is participating in the Challenge, and which teams are established/forming along with team goals. The site also provides resources for teams, including simulation tool references (output from our March Preparatory Workshop), links to external information (references provided by participants), and output of ongoing projects as well.
Reporting
Our primary goal is to give a platform for teams to form and do exciting work and then share that with others. We do hope that teams will supply information that helps us (TE community) understand:
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What modeling and simulation tools were used for what purposes.
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What tool extensions were made or new co-simulations performed.
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What TE approaches were investigated and what results were found.
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What data resources were used, tools developed, exciting results found, collaborations formed, lessons learned, and other resources that might be used to build up the TE community.
Join the TE Challenge!
Any organization wanting to participate can register here. Registration simply states intent to participate. Basic registration information includes who you are (organization and individual contact info) and then what your idea is (or capabilities that you hope to bring to the table to potentially join a team). This is not a binding commitment. We expect that plans may change and team members will change.
Registrations are welcome at any time. Some teams were formed at the Kickoff meeting and some will form prior to and at the December Interim meeting. Also, team members may be added, or scope of a team project may change. Organizations may help to enrich the Challenge in ways not yet envisioned-please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
A note on Intellectual Property Rights: All information and results provided as part of the Challenge will be in the public domain. This does not preclude the use of proprietary techniques or tools to achieve the results.
Criteria for participation
- Uses/develops modeling and simulation tools for TE or performs related work on standards interoperability and application of the tools/standards.
- Builds the TE community by efforts to partner with other organizations and share results/resources throughout the TE Challenge process.
