Project Name: An Energy Internet Platform for Transactive Energy and Demand Response Applications
Funding Opportunity: Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR FY2019 Phase II)
SETO Research Area: Manufacturing and Competitiveness
Location: McLean, VA
SETO Award Amount: $1,040,919
Awardee Cost Share: N/A
Principal Investigator: Rasheq Rahman
Planned Timeline: 2018-2021
-- Award and cost share amounts are subject to change pending negotiations --
This project team is creating a blockchain-enabled online platform that allows commercial and industrial buildings to buy and sell excess rooftop photovoltaic energy generation and reduce energy consumption in a secure and reliable way. The platform will be scalable and customizable and equipped with an analytics tool to help utilities and microgrid operators optimize and manage their energy resources.
APPROACH
This project will use a two-way system that manages the exchange of energy within an electric power network. The platform will collect data through smart devices, such as inverters, thermostats, and power meters, that can be used to monitor and regulate electricity loads. The platform will then share data, enabling the system to manage energy exchanges. The project team is working with Virginia Tech to identify energy transactions that are outside normal trading behavior to improve grid security. Commonwealth Edison in Chicago is partnering to implement the platform using live data and simulations from its SETO-funded Bronzeville Community Microgrid.
INNOVATION
This platform will reduce the cost of solar by providing new ways for building owners and microgrid operators to trade excess energy generated by PV and incentivize demand response. This can help spur distributed energy resources as well as new approaches to managing PV in a microgrid. Its flexibility will also allow utilities to quickly try different transactive energy business models and incentive structures by scaling up at the building, market, and microgrid levels.
