Dynamic, self-organized clusters as a means to supply and demand matching in large-scale energy systems

Centralized management of power systems is becoming more challenging due to the increased introduction of distributed renewable energy resources, along with demand increase and aging infrastructures. To address these challenges, this paper proposes new mechanisms for decentralized energy management. Based on self-organization of consumers, prosumers and producers into virtual groups, called clusters, supply and demand of electricity is locally matched. Distributed multi-agent systems are used as a way to represent virtual cluster members. The mechanisms are illustrated, and static and dynamic virtual clusters are compared. Dynamic reconfiguration is achieved by varying the time periods for which clustering is performed. The proposed clustering mechanisms demonstrate that large-scale centralized energy systems can operate in a decentralized fashion when only local information is available.