An Adaptable Engineering Support Framework for Multi-Functional Energy Storage System Applications

• Main Authors: Claudia Zanabria, Filip Pröstl Andrén, Thomas I. Strasser
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: energy management system; energy storage system; semantic web technologies; rules; ontology; engineering support; smart grid architecture model; model driven architecture; IEC 61850; IEC 61499
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4164

A significant integration of energy storage systems is taking place to offer flexibility to electrical networks and to mitigate side effects of a high penetration of distributed energy resources. To accommodate this, new processes are needed for the design, implementation, and proof-of-concept of emerging storage systems services, such as voltage and frequency regulation, and reduction of energy costs, among others. Nowadays, modern approaches are getting popular to support engineers during the design and development process of such multi-functional energy storage systems. Nevertheless, these approaches still lack flexibility needed to accommodate changing practices and requirements from control engineers and along the development process. With that in mind, this paper shows how a modern development approach for rapid prototyping of multi-functional battery energy storage system applications can be extended to provide this needed flexibility. For this, an expert user is introduced, which has the sole purpose of adapting the existing engineering approach to fulfill any new requirements from the control engineers. To achieve this, the expert user combines concepts from model-driven engineering and ontologies to reach an adaptable engineering support framework. As a result, new engineering requirements, such as new information sources and target platforms, can be automatically included into the engineering approach by the expert user, providing the control engineer with further support during the development process. The usefulness of the proposed solution is shown with a selected use case related to the implementation of an application for a battery energy storage system. It demonstrates how the expert user can fully adapt an existing engineering approach to the control engineer’s needs and thus increase the effectiveness of the whole engineering process.