Abstract
The German Smart Meter Gateway (SMGW) infrastructure enables digital access to metering data and distributed energy resources by external parties. There are, however, various restrictions in order to guarantee the privacy of consumers, and strong security requirements. Furthermore, in the current state of development, there are still several challenges to overcome in order to implement demand side management (DSM) measures. In this paper, we present a prototype enabling DSM measures within the SMGW infrastructure, using the smart grid traffic light concept. The prototype implements an automated decentralized energy management system (EMS) that optimally controls an electric vehicle charging station. In the development of this prototype, we did not only evaluate five of the seven available SMGW devices, but also push the limits of the infrastructure itself. The experiments demonstrated the successful implementation of the intended DSM measure by the EMS. Even though there are technical guidelines standardizing the functionality of SMGWs, our evaluation shows that there are substantial differences between the individual SMGW devices.
Highlights
As renewable energy sources become increasingly important in the face of climate change, the challenges accompanied by their volatile energy supply, primarily the potential imbalance between energy supply and demand, must be addressed
We demonstrated the optimized charging of two different electric vehicle (EV) and successfully implemented the restrictions instructed by the demand side manager (DSMgr)
Using the hardware setup outlined in this paper, multiple Smart Meter Gateway (SMGW) have been tested according to the formulated methodology, uncovering specifics that need to be considered when developing value-added services in the SMGW infrastructure
Summary
As renewable energy sources become increasingly important in the face of climate change, the challenges accompanied by their volatile energy supply, primarily the potential imbalance between energy supply and demand, must be addressed. In order to facilitate the balance between energy supply and demand, and guarantee the safe operation of the electrical grid, the wide-spread implementation of demand side management (DSM) measures is required. One issue in this context is the communication with distributed energy resources (DERs), such as combined heat and power plants, battery storage systems, and electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. In Germany, the so-called Smart Meter Gateways (SMGWs) play a crucial role in enabling DSM measures by allowing bidirectional communication with DERs. In 2009 the EU directive 2009/72 EC [1] was passed.
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