Efficient infrastructure for aggregation and marketing of distributed small-scale energy resources

Within the German E-Energy initiative the project E-DeMa is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (reference number 01ME08013A). In a consortium (with RWE, Miele, Prosyst and the universities Bochum, Dortmund and Duisburg-Essen) Stadtwerke Krefeld (SWK) and Siemens gained experiences during the trial run in 2012 reflected in this article. In the E-DeMa project CHP (combined heat and power) sites and home appliances are controlled by an aggregator power control system. Thus communication must be based on standard protocols and has to be vendor independent to support seamless installation and maintenance. The volume and rate of data will increase dramatically as information will increasingly be exchanged between the market place and all participating decentralized power producers, prosumers, aggregators and related control systems. Different approaches to handle these challenges are discussed. The paper reports on the experience gained in the E-DeMa project particularly considering the interfaces of the aggregator system. Based on this, recommendations for necessary standardization are highlighted - covering these interfaces as well as overall system architecture in order to be well prepared for large scale and long-term implementations far beyond the scope of a research project.