Operation_modes

Operation Mode based Control Types

Similarities

There are three Control Types that are based on a common principle of Operation Modes. There three Control Types are:

• Operation Mode Based Control (OMBC)
• Fill Rate Based Control (FRBC)
• Demand Driven Based Control (DDBC)

Although these Control Types differ enough to separate them into three distinct Control Types, there are some common aspects that make them similar: Operation Modes, Transitions and Timers. These concepts are explained on this page.

A virtual device

The objective for a Control Type is basically for a CEM to understand what a device is capable of from an energy perspective, under which circumstances what things can be adjusted, and what the constraints are for these adjustments. And for many applications it is important that the CEM can make relatively good predictions of what will happen in certain situations. The three Operation Mode based Control Types do that in similar fashion: they model a virtual, abstract device.

Of course, in the end, it is all about controlling the real, physical device. But the virtual device is a helpful tool. The physical device contains a lot of details that are not relevant for a CEM. The control system of the physical device has all sorts of concerns, but the CEM is only concerned with utilizing energy flexibility. The virtual device ignores all details of the device that are not relevant to a CEM. In addition, physical devices have an enormous variety in parameters, sensors, control strategies, concerns, safeguards, and so on. It would be practically impossible to develop a CEM that can understand all the parameters of all the physical devices on the market. By making the virtual device more abstract, its concepts can be translated to all sorts of physical devices, even though internally the function very differently. As a consequence, it not always possible to make a 100% accurate description of all the behaviors and constraints in these abstractions. But the abstractions used in the control types are quite powerful, and should allow you to come pretty close.

The Control Types basically define how the virtual device can be described. It is the job of the RM to describe the behavior of the physical device as well as it can in the terms of the virtual device. The RM describes how the virtual device functions, what it can do and what kind of constraints it has. It also informs the CEM about the current state of the virtual device. Based on the description of this virtual device, the CEM can make predictions of that the virtual device will do in certain situations, and when it is allowed to send which instruction to the RM. When the CEM sends an instruction for the virtual device to the RM, it is the job of RM to translate this instruction for the virtual device into an instruction to the physical device that would yield the same result. Once the physical device has changed it behavior, the RM should inform the CEM that the virtual device has changed its state accordingly.

State machine

TODO

Operation Modes

TODO

Transitions

TODO

Timers

TODO