Reference architecture and infrastructure for modularity-based distributed control

The project will establish a reference architecture and infrastructure for distributed sharing of operation data between the DERs to enable intelligent control algorithms to optimize the operation of the units and requests for changes in operation between units. The DER communication module will include node discovery to connect the units dynamically without the need to manually setup which units each unit should communicate with, and their address. For scalability, a network topology algorithm will determine which discovered nodes each unit should be connected to and share operation data with, to reduce the amount of resources and bandwidth needed. A comparison of the applicable communication protocols for communication between the connected units will be performed to determine the optimal protocol for the project and to identify the advantages and disadvantages of using the protocols for smart grid communication. The most used and discussed standards will be evaluated, to determine how much they will improve the project and how much work it will be, along with the general advantages and disadvantages of using them with smart grid systems.