Introduction to energy management in smart grids

The very concept of “smart grids” is referring to the interactions among the different layers of energy grids. The use of information and communication technology, or as it is often called the process of digitalization, enables the management of energy networks in a way optimizing many performance parameters like operating cost, reliability, environmental impact, etc. The core of the process is an energy management procedure able to define a strategy reaching these goals by finding the best operational path among different options and alternatives. Until now, these procedures have been mainly proposed only for electric grids, but nowadays it is more and more apparent that the interactions between electric and other networks, like heating and cooling ones, have many promising aspects for helping the attainment of environmental goals like decarbonization of our energy system. As a consequence, the chapter will address the following topics: 1. simulation of power flows in multienergy or hybrid energy networks and evaluation of their key performance indexes. Particular attention will be devoted to the modeling of energy storage in different energy vectors (electrochemical battery storage, thermal/cooling energy storage, hydrogen, power to gas, etc.) 2. mathematical optimization of hybrid energy networks by means of mixed integer linear programming, analysis of the computational cost of the procedure, interaction with forecasting of power demand and pricesñ 3. case study in planning and operation of energy management systems both in case of industrial and residential facilities, district heating and cooling systems, water networks, and transportation infrastructures