DATA STRUCTURE COMPRISING AN ENERGY SCHEDULE AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A DATA STRUCTURE COMPRISING AN ENERGY SCHEDULE

Abstract

An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for providing a data structure comprising a refined energy schedule, the method comprising receiving a plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers from a plurality of participants of a power network; determining by a plurality of distributed computational units the refined energy schedule, using an optimization function, under consideration of the plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers, wherein the refined energy schedule is an at least substantially optimal energy schedule; and appending the refined energy schedule to the data structure. A further aspect of the disclosure relates to a data structure, in particular to the data structure provided in the method.

Claims

1. A method for providing a data structure comprising a refined energy schedule, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers from a plurality of participants of a power network; determining by a plurality of distributed computational units the refined energy schedule, using an optimization function, under consideration of the plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers, wherein the refined energy schedule is an at least substantially optimal energy schedule; appending the refined energy schedule to the data structure; providing the data structure to the plurality of participants of the power network; verifying by the plurality of participants of the power network the data structure; and supplying, storing, and/or consuming energy by the plurality of participants of the power network according to the refined energy schedule.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a subset of the plurality of distributed computational units is located at sites of the plurality of participants of the power network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the refined energy schedule comprises: computing, by each of the plurality of distributed computational units, a respective energy schedule, using the optimization function, under consideration of the plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers; and selecting the refined energy schedule from the respective energy schedules, in particular based on a return value of the optimization function.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting the refined energy schedule from the respective energy schedules comprises: distributing at least a subset of the respective energy schedules among the plurality of distributed computational units; and agreeing among the plurality of distributed computational units on the refined energy schedule.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the refined energy schedule comprises: dividing a computational task into a plurality of computational sub-tasks; assigning each of the plurality of computational sub-tasks to a respective one of the of the plurality of distributed computational units; and performing the each of the plurality of computational sub-tasks by the respective one of the plurality of distributed computational units.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the respective one of the plurality of computational units comprises a respective plurality of computational sub-units and wherein performing the each of the plurality of computational sub-tasks comprises computing, by each of the respective plurality of computational sub-units, a solution to the each of the plurality of computational sub-tasks; and selecting an at least substantially optimal solution from the solutions computed by the respective plurality of computational sub-units.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structure is a distributed data structure, in particular implemented on the plurality of distributed computational units, more in particular based on distributed ledger technology, even more in particular based on blockchain technology.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data structure comprises a first data block that comprises a preceding refined energy schedule.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein appending the refined energy schedule to the data structure comprises creating a second data block that comprises the refined energy schedule and a hash of at least parts of the first data block.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising agreeing with or correcting the refined energy schedule in the data structure by a system operator.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating an authenticated confirmation message by the system operator and appending the authenticated confirmation message to the data structure.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a computational effort for determining the refined energy schedule of each of at least subset of the plurality of distributed computational units.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method of claim 1.

14. A computer-implemented data structure, comprising a refined energy schedule, wherein the refined energy schedule is determined by a plurality of distributed computational units, using an optimization function and under consideration of a plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers from a plurality of participants of a power network, and wherein the refined energy schedule is an at least substantially optimal energy schedule.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] The subject-matter of the present disclosure will be explained in more detail in the following text with reference to exemplary embodiments which are illustrated in the attached drawings.

[0022] FIG. 1 schematically depicts an exemplary system to which aspects of the present disclosure can be applied.

[0023] FIG. 2 schematically depicts an exemplary embodiment of the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0024] FIG. 3 schematically depicts an exemplary embodiment of the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0025] FIG. 4 schematically depicts an exemplary embodiment of the second aspect of the present disclosure.

[0026] The reference symbols used in the drawings, and their meanings, are listed in summary form in the list of reference symbols. In principle, identical parts are provided with the same reference symbols in the figures.

Detailed Description of Exemplary Embodiments

[0027] Embodiments will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown.

[0028] FIG. 1 schematically depicts an exemplary system to which aspects of the present disclosure can be applied. This system comprises a power network 30 with participants 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d. These participants of the power network 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d may comprise energy generating units, energy market operators, energy storage units, and/or demand units, in particular controllable demand units. Energy generating units may e.g. comprise distributed energy resources such as photovoltaic power plants, wind energy farms, diesel generators. Energy storage units may e.g. comprise battery energy storage, electro thermal energy storage, and/or mechanical energy storage such as flywheels. Energy market operators may represent, serve, and/or act on behalf of a number of further participants of the power network. The system further comprises distributed computational units 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, and 20f; a subset 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d of the plurality of distributed computational units is located at sites of the plurality of participants of the power network 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d and may act as control unit for at least at subset of the plurality of participants of the power network 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d. The system may further comprise a communication network 50 such as a wide area network. The distributed computational units 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, and 20f may be communicatively coupled to the communication network. In addition, there may be a system operator 40 that in embodiments is also communicatively coupled to the communication network 50.

[0029] FIG. 2 schematically depict an exemplary embodiment of the first aspect of the present disclosure by means of a flow diagram. Herein, method element 110 comprises receiving the plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers from the plurality of participants of the power network. Method element 120 comprises determining by a plurality of distributed computational units 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, 20f the refined energy schedule 210, using an optimization function, under consideration of the plurality of energy demand requests, energy storage offers, and/or energy supply offers, wherein the refined energy schedule 210 is an at least substantially optimal energy schedule. Method element 130 comprises appending the refined energy schedule 210 to the data structure 200.

[0030] FIG. 3 schematically depict a further exemplary embodiment of the first aspect of the present disclosure by means of a flow diagram. In addition to method elements 110, 120, and 130, this embodiment comprises further method elements 140, 150, 160, 170, and 180. Method element 140 comprises agreeing with or correcting the refined energy schedule 210 in the data structure 200 by a system operator 40. Method element 150 comprises creating an authenticated confirmation message 260a by the system operator 40 and appending the authenticated confirmation message 260a to the data structure 200. Method element 160 comprises providing the data structure 200 to the plurality of participants of the power network 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d. Method element 170 comprises verifying by the plurality of participants of the power network 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d the data structure 200. Method element 180 comprises supplying, storing, and/or consuming energy by the plurality of participants of the power network 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d according to the refined energy schedule 210.

[0031] FIG. 4 schematically depicts an exemplary embodiment of a data structure 200 according to the second aspect of the present disclosure. The data structure 200 may in particular be a blockchain and may comprise a second data block 240. The second data block 240 comprises the refined energy schedule 210, an authenticated confirmation message 260a, and a cryptographic hash 250a of the preceding refined energy schedule 220a in a first data block 230a. The second data block 240 may further comprise a header. The data structure 200 may further comprise the first data blocks 230a, 230b. The first data block 230a may comprise a cryptographic hash 250b to a preceding refined energy schedule 220b in the first data block 230b and the first data block 230b may itself comprise a cryptographic hash 250c to a preceding refined energy schedule in a further first data block. This way, a blockchain is created. The first data blocks 230a, 230b may further comprise authenticated confirmation messages 260b and 260c, respectively.

[0032] In the context of the present disclosure, a computational unit may be any kind of computational device comprising a processor, a memory, and a storage.

[0033] While embodiments have been described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such description is to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. Variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art and practising the claimed embodiments, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. The word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that certain elements or steps are recited in distinct claims does not indicate that a combination of these elements or steps cannot be used to advantage, specifically, in addition to the actual claim dependency, any further meaningful claim combination shall be considered disclosed.

LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS

[0034] 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d participant of power network [0035] 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, 20f computational unit, plurality of computational units [0036] 30 power network [0037] 40 system operator [0038] 50 communication network, wide area network [0039] 200 data structure, computer-implemented data structure [0040] 210 refined energy schedule [0041] 220 preceding refined energy schedule [0042] 230 first data block [0043] 240 second data block [0044] 250a, 250b, 250c, 250d hash, cryptographic hash [0045] 260a, 260b, 260c, 260d authenticated confirmation message