Prototyping Multi-Protocol Communication to enable semantic interoperability for Demand response Services

In future demand response scenarios, a multitude of different types of resources are potentially to be used, e.g., electric vehicles, flexible residential loads, and battery storage systems. To solve the problem of real-time communication of data among the various resources, it is likely that several different communication protocols and most importantly differing semantic models, must be used. An aggregator utilizing several types of resources is therefore potentially faced with a problem of semantic interoperability. This paper addresses this challenge by presenting a testbed consisting of a microgrid model integrated with several controllers communicating with industrial grade protocols for demand response, including IEC 61850, OpenChargePoint protocol (OCPP), OpenADR and UDP. The testbed forms a basis for further development of a semantic canvas to enable forecasting, activation and clearing of heterogenous demand response resources.