Leaky bucket approach implementing anticipatory control for nodal power flow management in smart energy systems

The electric power grid is the essential infrastructure for electric power delivery from generation through transmission, distribution to consumption node. The lack of large scale energy storage makes the grid unstable and fragile. In smart energy systems, power flow is regulated by pricing signals enabled through the communication component of the smart grid. This paper presents a leaky bucket approach that uses anticipatory control for power flow management in smart energy systems. The leaky bucket determines the flow rate with respect to a node of the power grid by taking into account the current state of the grid as well as current and anticipated electricity prices. The overall goal is to optimize power system performance and minimize the electricity consumption cost to the customers connected to a node. The proposed approach is tested on data obtained by the Gridlab-D simulation platform. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the leaky bucket approach using anticipatory control in managing power flow and reducing overall cost to the consumer.