Mathematical modelling of devices and flows in energy systems ∗

In the future of Smart Grids, many different devices have to be integrated into one overall system. These devices are of various types, they are related to various forms of energy, they have to exchange these different forms of energy, and together they have to work towards common objectives. To handle such a system, a general model is required, which allows the integration of all these different devices, energy forms and objectives and which is able to incorporate also future developments for which the concrete setting can not be foreseen yet. In this paper, we present such a flexible model which handles different types of devices and which supports arbitrary ways of energy flows between devices. Instead of considering complex operations of devices we introduce simple basic devices which can be easily combined to obtain advanced functionality. The flexibility of the resulting model is demonstrated by considering some advanced devices but also by giving a reduction between Binary Linear Programming and the proposed model where variables and constrains are in a one-to-one correspondence to devices and energy flows.