Context-awareness in the deregulated electric energy market: an agent-based approach

Multiagent systems are commonly used for simulation of new paradigms of energy distribution. Especially when considering Smart Grids, the autonomicity deployed by goal-driven agents implies the need for being aware of multiple aspects connected to the energy distribution context. With ‘context’, we refer to the outside world variables such as weather, stock market trends, location of the users, government actions, and so on; therefore, an architecture highly context-aware is needed. We propose a model in which every important factor concerning the electric energy distribution is presented by modeling context-aware agents able to identify the impact of these factors. Moreover, some tests have been performed regarding the web service integration in which agents contracting energy will automatically retrieve data to be used in adaptive and collaborative aspects; an explicative example is represented by the retrieval of weather forecasting that provides input on ongoing demand and data for the predicted availability (in case of photovoltaic or wind powered environments). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.