Davide Rivola

A decentralized approach to demand side load management: The Swiss2Grid project

We present the Swiss2Grid project, a pilot and demonstration aimed at evaluating the impact of different distributed demand management policies in Smart Grids. The increasing diffusion of decentralised energy generation, especially photovoltaics, can lead to severe imbalances on the electric grid, which could require huge investments in grid infrastructures. The approach proposed by the Swiss2Grid project is to adopt a decentralised approach to load management at the local level. Single households use a local algorithm that, based only on local voltage and frequency measures, shifts the pre-emptible loads in time in order to minimise the costs for the consumer and to maximise the grid stability. In this paper we present the project set-up in Mendrisio, a city in Southern Switzerland, we describe the algorithm principles, and finally we present some preliminary results showing the impact of the Swiss2Grid algorithm on the Low Voltage grid.

Using Smartphones to Profile Mobility Patterns in a Living Lab for the Transition to E-mobility

The diffusion of electric vehicles is currently the most promising opportunity to reduce the dependency on fossil fuel in the mobility sector. However, the adoption of the electric vehicles seems to be still hindered by psychological and behavioural barriers. Thus, in order to understand and to foster the transition towards more sustainable mobility styles, it becomes essential to adopt an inter-disciplinary approach. In this framework, the e-mobiliTI project was launched in late 2012 in Southern Switzerland. It aims at understanding the potential for transition in the mobility system at the local level, with a special focus on electric mobility. The project builds upon a small living lab made up of around twenty families, who will be monitored in all their trips through smart mobile devices, in order to get quantitative data, and through focus groups, in order to get qualitative data and perceptions.

Modeling and Simulation of a Residential Neighborhood with Photovoltaic Systems Coupled to Energy Storage Systems

The diffusion of the photovoltaic installations is reaching significant levels in the low voltage electric grid, therefore the need of effective energy management strategies increases. Within the Swiss2Grid (S2G) pilot project we are designing and testing a tool that allows the decentralized management of the distributed generation and consumption by controlling local energy storage systems and shifting the activation of households loads. In order to assess the effects of higher levels of diffusion of photovoltaic and storage system into the low voltage grid, we modeled the pilot residential neighborhood in Modelica, a multi-domain, open-source modeling language. In this paper we describe the components and the selected penetration scenarios. We finally present the results of the simulations, analyzing the effects of the chosen scenarios on neighborhood overall power, voltage instabilities and self-consumption.

Inferring power fluctuations at a low voltage transformer from local voltage measurements in the underlying distribution grid

The incremental deployment of small scale stochastic generators has a significant impact low voltage grids. We investigated the applicability of local voltage measurements at household sockets as predictors of the power at the low voltage branch of the transformer. The general goal is to evaluate the feasibility of a decentralized demand-side control algorithm using local voltage as the regulation input. In this paper we introduce the approach adopted by our study and describe the experimental results, which demonstrate the possibility of using a local voltage measurement as an input signal for decentralized control.

HAC: Hardware design for a Smart-Home and Smart-Grid decentralised load management system

The growth of energy demand and decentralised renewable energy generation (e.g. photovoltaic, eolic) can lead to electric grid imbalances requiring extra investments in the electric grid infrastructure. One of the goals of Smart-Home and Smart-Grid solutions is to solve this issue. The majority of the solutions are focused on centralised load management. Furthermore most of the Smart-Home and Smart-Grid publications analyse the topics from the application point of view so that there is a lack of specific descriptions of the infrastructure and of the used technology. SUPSI has proposed and verified a decentralised and innovative Smart-Grid approach. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach a custom HAC (Household Appliance Controller) and a communication infrastructure has been developed. This paper describes this design, and its use in several pilot projects performed in Switzerland (Swiss2Grid, RiParTi 2.0, HCD 2.0) which in their turn have demonstrate the feasibility and the benefits of a decentralised Smart-Grid management.

High-speed multi-channel system for solar simulator irradiance non-uniformity measurement

We present a new tool for the measurement of the non-uniformity of a large-area pulsed solar simulator according to IEC 60904-9. We realized a prototype portable unit that can be controlled via a single USB port of a notebook. The system is composed by several photovoltaic cells and a series of custom designed electronic boards, allowing a high-speed multi-channel sampling of a single pulse. We describe the main components and the design solution, which is using readily available standard electronic and software components, allowing a possible industrialization of the system. Finally we present preliminary results of the prototype unit testing.