With the advent of remarkable development of solar power panel and inverter technology and focus on reducing greenhouse emissions, there is increased migration from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy sources (e.g., solar, wind, and geothermal). A new paradigm called Transactive Energy (TE) [3] has emerged that utilizes economic and control techniques to effectively manage Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). Another goal of TE is to improve grid reliability and efficiency. However, to evaluate various TE approaches, a comprehensive simulation tool is needed that is easy to use and capable of simulating the power-grid along with various grid operational scenarios that occur in the transactive energy paradigm. In this research, we present a web-based design and simulation platform (called a design studio) targeted toward evaluation of power-grid distribution system and transactive energy approaches [1]. The design studio allows to edit and visualize existing power-grid models graphically, create new power-grid network models, simulate those networks, and inject various scenario-specific perturbations to evaluate specific configurations of transactive energy simulations. The design studio provides (i) a novel Domain-Specific Modeling Language (DSML) using the Web-based Generic Modeling Environment (WebGME [4]) for the graphical modeling of power-grid, cyber-physical attacks, and TE scenarios, and (ii) a reusable cloud-hosted simulation backend using the Gridlab-D power-grid distribution system simulation tool [2]. 
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                            NIST Transactive EnergyModeling and Simulation Challenge Phase II Final Report
                        
                    
    
            The NIST Transactive Energy (TE) Modeling and Simulation Challenge for the Smart Grid (Challenge) spanned from 2015 to 2018. The TE Challenge was initiated to identify simulation tools and expertise that might be developed or combined in co-simulation platforms to enable the evaluation of transactive energy approaches. Phase I of the Challenge spanned 2015 to 2016, with team efforts that improved understanding of TE concepts, identified relevant simulation tools and co-simulation platforms, and inspired the development of a TE co-simulation abstract component model that paved the way for Phase II. The Phase II effort spanned Spring 2017 through Spring 2018, where the teams collaboratively developed a specific TE problem scenario, a common grid topology, and common reporting metrics to enable direct comparison of results from simulation of each team's TE approach for the defined scenario.This report presents an overview of the TE Challenge, the TE abstract component model, and the common scenario.It also compiles the individual Challenge participants' research reports from Phase II. The common scenario involves a weather event impacting a distribution grid with very high penetration of photovoltaics, leading to voltage regulation challenges that are to be mitigated by TE methods. Four teams worked with this common scenario and different TE models to incentivize distributed resource response to voltage deviations, performing these simulations on different simulation platforms. A fifth team focused on a co-simulation platform that can be used for online TE simulations with existing co-simulation components. The TE Challenge Phase II has advanced co-simulation modeling tools and platforms for TE system performance analysis, developed a referenceable TE scenario that can support ongoing comparative simulations, and demonstrated various TE approaches for managing voltage on a distribution grid with high penetration of photovoltaics. 
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                            - Award ID(s):
- 1743772
- PAR ID:
- 10194887
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- NIST special publication
- ISSN:
- 1048-776X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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