Context-awareness and the smart grid: Requirements and challenges

New intelligent power grids (smart grids) will be an essential way of improving efficiency in power supply and power consumption, facilitating the use of distributed and renewable resources on the supply side and providing consumers with a range of tailored services on the consumption side. The delivery of efficiencies and advanced services in a smart grid will require both a comprehensive overlay communications network and flexible software platforms that can process data from a variety of sources, especially electronic sensor networks. Parallel developments in autonomic systems, pervasive computing and context-awareness (relating in particular to data fusion, context modelling, and semantic data) could provide key elements in the development of scalable smart grid data management systems and applications that utilise a multi-technology communications network. This paper describes: (1) the communications and data management requirements of the emerging smart grid, (2) state-of-the-art techniques and systems for context-awareness and (3) a future direction towards devising a context-aware middleware platform for the smart grid, as well as associated requirements and challenges. Smart grids will transform the methods of generating electric power and the monitoring and billing of consumption. The drivers behind the development of smart grids include economic, political and technical elements. Major initiatives have been launched in Europe by the EU Commission [1] and the European Electricity Grid Initiative [2]. In the US, overall policies are set out by the National Science and Technology Council [3] while grid modernisation is specifically described in a report by the GridWise Alliance [4]. The main policy drivers for power grid development are as follows: Promote the integration of distributed renewable power sources (e.g. wind, solar, wave and tidal power, geothermal, biofuel); Provide significant reductions in carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions through the phasing-out of fossil fuel power plants. This is to help meet agreed world targets in reducing greenhouse gases and combatting climate change; Promote the use of electric vehicles as an alternative to fossil fuelled transport systems; Renew and upgrade older grid transmission infrastructure to provide greater efficiency and security of supply; Introduce two-way ''smart'' metering to facilitate both power saving and power production by consumers; Apart from these policy drivers, power production and distribution will also have to operate in an increasingly deregulated and competitive market environment.