User:Ab8360/sandbox

GridAgents is a seminal application of decentralized computing in the distributed renewable energy and smart grid markets. As such, it was one of the first implementations of a so-called transactive energy platform, both in terms of R&D and commercially, and the forerunner of succeeding generations of microgrid, distributed energy resources, demand-side response, smart grid and smart city management systems and platforms.

David A. Cohen created the original version of GridAgents, drawing on advances in the fields of artificial intelligence, peer-to-peer computing, machine-to-machine (M2M) and “Internet of Things” (IoT) communications networking technology while pursuing an MSc. in civil engineering (Smart Systems) at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1991-1995).

GridAgents and succeeding distributed energy resource management and smart grid systems and platforms are central to the transition taking place today from Industrial Age models of power and energy infrastructure and services based on fossil fuels and centralized power plants to a fast emerging new model based on the ''three 'D's : digitization, decentralization and “decarbonization” of power and energy production, distribution and use.

New York utility Con Edison and Boulder, Colorado-based Infotility, with grant funding from the U.S Dept. of Energy, were the first deploy GridAgents in a live electricity grid environment in New York City in 1999. The distributed, smart grid computing and communications platform has since been used on its own or incorporated into larger systems architectures for integrated, real-time management of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation, battery-based energy storage, electric vehicle (EV) charging, nanogrid building and community distributed energy resources, and utility-customer demand side programs.

GridAgents has been used in a variety of pioneering distributed power and energy systems environments. These include:
 * Creation of the first Web-based Distributed Energy Management platform and Network Operations Center and the first Virtual Power Plant, for Silicon Energy in 2003.
 * Creation of the open source Auto-DR platform  (now Open-ADR™).


 * The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Con Edison, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Infotility in 2007 scaled up and implemented an industrial-strength, pilot version of GridAgents in New York City as part of Con Edison's "3G System of the Future " project. Verizon, one of the two largest telecommunications and Internet services providers in the US, deployed GridAgents in New York City as well.
 * The DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado joined with Infotility to use GridAgents in a cooperative research and development project "to perform research, development, and pilot-scale testing of advanced, next-generation distribution operational strategies using ConEdison's 3G: Distribution System of the Future and associated infrastructure for the real-world Test Bed (demonstration network) combined with the Infotility GridAgents: Secure Agent Framework for Energy as the software platform for advanced operational strategies development."


 * Formed the core of a U.S. DOE-backed joint development partnership with Australia’s CSIRO to develop a distributed energy-smart grid management systems platform that could be tested and proved in the field at utility grid scale.


 * From 2008-2010 Infotility joined with California's Pacific Gas & Electric (PGE), Marin County Energy (MCE) Australia's CSIRO and international partners to field test GridAgents' ability to manage microgrids with high penetrations of renewables. This included “developing control strategies for optimizing the use of distributed renewables such as PV and wind, with demand response, EV [elecric vehicle] charging, and storage for microgrids and communities (feeder level, LMP).”
 * In addition, Infotility joined with NREL, MCE, CSIRO, and European Union utility and energy services groups for the Integral Renewables smart grid technology transfer project. Anglo-Swiss multinational power engineering and equipment manufacturer ABB and Infotility leverage GridAgents to co-develop the Virtual Utility project.

In early 2012, Dubai, UAE-based Pacific Controls acquired the rights to GridAgents as part of its acquisition of Infotility.

Pacific Controls merged GridAgents with its Gbots agent-based software and deployed the combination in its Global Command and Control Centers in Dubai, Toronto, New Jersey, and other cites running within Galaxy™, the power and energy industry’s first Smart City managed services platform.

Pacific Controls also used GridAgents to create its Virtual Building Energy Network (VBEN), an “end-to-end building-to-grid managed services platform based on the Infotility platform. VBEN enabled and supported two-way energy, power and information flows between local power grids and “beyond the meter,” utility- customer DSRs (demand-side resources) – EVs, smart, connected lighting; heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and other types of equipment and devices that serve as electricity grid loads – along with customer-side energy zero- or low-emissions energy generation assets, e.g. solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, small-scale wind turbines, combined heat and power (CHP) and advanced battery-based energy storage systems (BESS).

An open source version of GridAgents' software code was acquired by Evolution7 Labs in 2010 and is being used for research and development projects in areas such as smart home and e-mobility, as well as others. In addition, rights to make use of GridAgents code were transferred into The Energy Mashup Lab under an Apache 2.0 license in order to create an open version of GridAgents and to make GridAgents available to a larger community. Deployment of the open version is planned for release in 2018.