Much like how the software industry is shifting from large companies controlling the production to distributed open source communities controlling the production, the energy production industry is going through a similar transformation to small-scale renewable technologies, such as solar panels, to produce energy through distributed networks. PowerMatcherSuite is a new open source project that includes software tools to coordinate smart grids and expands on this trend towards distributed energy networks.
The PowerMatcher core application provides the market mechanism for the determination of the market equilibrium, while the devices work as actors for demand and/or supply. Each device, whether it’s a washing machine, windmill, or industrial turbine, can express its willingness to consume or produce energy in the form of a bid (a demand or supply relationship). All bids come together in the market mechanism of the PowerMatcher and result in an equilibrium price.
The project is backed by the Flexible Power Alliance Network, which consists of companies like Accenture, Alliander, CGI, and Stedin. Currently, the technology is being used in smart grid experiments in The Netherlands and Germany. The next steps for the project are to improve device driver support and to beef up security in the core framework.
