Multi-Grid Schemes for Multi-Scale Coordination of Energy Systems

Abstract: We discuss how multi-grid computing schemes can be used to design hierarchical coordination architectures for energy systems. These hierarchical architectures can be used to manage multiple temporal and spatial scales and mitigate fundamental limitations of centralized and decentralized architectures. We present the basic elements of a multi-grid scheme, which includes a smoothing operator (a high-resolution decentralized coordination layer that targets phenomena at high frequencies) and a coarsening operator (a low-resolution centralized coordination layer that targets phenomena at low frequencies). For smoothing, we extend existing convergence results for Gauss-Seidel schemes by applying them to systems that cover unstructured domains. This allows us to target problems with multiple timescales and arbitrary networks. The proposed coordination schemes can be used to guide transactions in decentralized electricity markets. We present a storage control example and a power flow diffusion example to illustrate the developments.