Our paper on “Operating-Envelopes-Aware Decentralized Welfare Maximization for Energy Communities” has been presented today at the 59th Annual Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing, Monticello, IL.
Coalition price, and community members optimal decisions.
The paper is a result of a collaborative work with researchers from the Power System Engineering Center (PSEC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
I presented our work on “Grid-Aware Decentralized Welfare Maximization for Energy Communities” at the NREL’s 6th Workshop on Autonomous Energy Systems in Golden, CO (September 6—8, 2023).
The poster and summary slides are provided below:
Also, our work on DER aggregation, entitled “DSO-DERA Coordination for the Wholesale Market Participation of Distributed Energy Resources,” was presented by my colleague Cong Chen:
We recently uploaded an arXiv preprint on "Wholesale Market Participation of DERA Part II: Competitive DER Aggregation." This paper, which can be accessed at https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.02004, proposes a competitive DER aggregation of a profit-seeking DERA in the wholesale electricity market. The first part of the paper can be accessed at https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.01999.
The paper’s abstract is given below:
DERA model’s physical and financial interactions. The red arrows show the bidirectional power flow, the green for the financial transactions, and the blue for control signals.
We consider competitive DER aggregation that maximizes the DER aggregator’s (DERA) profit subject to that each customer of the DERA gains no less surplus and pays no higher energy cost than that under the regulated retail tariff. The DERA participates in the wholesale electricity market as virtual storage with optimized generation offers and consumption bids derived from the DERA’s competitive aggregation. Also derived are DERA’s bid curves for the access limits auction considered in Part I. We show that, with sufficiently high access limits, the proposed DERA’s wholesale participation achieves the same welfare-maximizing outcome as when its customers participate directly in the wholesale electricity market. Numerical studies compare the proposed competitive DER aggregation with existing benchmarks on surpluses of DERA’s customers, DERA profits, and the overall social welfare as functions of the DER adoption level in the distribution system.
Last Friday, I concluded my 3 months internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). During my PhD summer research internship at NREL I had the privilege of immersing myself in a dynamic and innovative environment dedicated to advancing clean and sustainable energy solutions. At NREL, I was part of the energy systems control and optimization group, under which I worked on a project involving autonomous energy systems with a focus on the human dimension. My summer work will be presented at the IEEE 59th Annual Allerton Conference On Communication, Control, and Computing. Part of my summer work will be presented at the NREL 6th Autonomous Energy Systems (AES) Workshop in September.
I am grateful to all of my mentors at NREL for their incredible support and guidance. I am also thankful to all the other researchers and engineers at NREL whom I met and exchanged ideas with.
I just published a new blog post on: “BTM and FTM DER: What Is The Difference?”
Link: https://ahmedsa1.medium.com/btm-and-ftm-der-what-is-the-difference-b1919f402eb7.
To read more blog posts, click here.
It was great connecting with many friends and familiar faces at the IEEE 2023 PES General Meeting. I presented our conference paper on “Dynamic Net Metering”, and also participated in the transaction paper sessions by presenting our work on “Net Metering X”. The feedback and discussions that followed the presentations expanded my knowledge and enabled me to connect with experts working on the same area. I also served as a judge for the student poster competition.
I will be serving as a judge at the 2023 IEEE PES General Meeting Student Poster Competition. The conference will be held in person at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida on 16 – 20 July 2023. I am very excited to learn more about the presented projects .
We recently uploaded an arXiv preprint on "Dynamic Net Metering for Energy Communities." This paper, which can be accessed from https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.13677, delves into the innovative concept of dynamic net metering and its potential in revolutionizing energy communities. By proposing a novel framework that considers real-time changes in community behind-the-meter and central DER and flexible consumption, this research aims to efficiently balance communities’s resources, maximize social welfare, and achieve individual and group rationalities via an incentive mechanism design.
I was happy to attend and actively engage in the 41st International Energy Workshop in Colorado School of Mines (CSM), Golden, CO, which featured many great talks that discussed the emerging energy sector issues, including energy markets, renewables, and electricity system modeling.
The workshop was co-hosted by both CSM and NREL.
On May 15th of 2023, I officially began my internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), working with the Energy Systems Control and Optimization Group under Power Systems Engineering Center (PSEC) in NREL’s south table mountain campus, Golden, CO.
NREL is renowned for its groundbreaking research and innovation in the field of renewable energy. From the moment I stepped foot on the NREL campus, I could feel the palpable passion and commitment to a sustainable future. Working alongside experienced mentors and talented colleagues, I am eager to contribute to the development of renewable energy solutions that will shape our world.
My work at NREL tackles understanding the human-dimension of energy systems. In particular, we aim to devise methods for control of networked systems of possibly non-compliant agents and to establish mathematical tools for the analysis of their performance.
The Cornell Energy Systems Institute (CESI) will be hosting a seminar on our “Net Energy Metering: Past, Future, and Large Scale Aggregations of Distributed Energy Resources” work, which will be presented by Prof. Lang Tong.
The seminar will take place on April 27th, 2023 (12:25—13:15) in 165 Olin Hall.
I was awarded a student travel grant to attend and present at the AI for Energy Research Conference at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia (March 6—8, 2023). The conference invited delegates from academia, government laboratories, and industry. The conference was hosted and co-organized by the Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC) and the AI initiative at KAUST.
On February 13th, I presented our work on “Co-optimizing Behind-The-Meter Resources under Net Metering” at the Texas 2023 Power and Energy Conference, College Station, Texas.
Very happy to conclude the main activities of MiSK Fellowship, which was followed by selecting me as a member in the Saudi Leaders Society (SLS).
During the past six months, I had unique opportunities and experiences to improve leadership and business skills. I had the privilege of connecting with many ambitious and talented young Saudi leaders, whom I also learned about their interests, experiences and aspirations.
Happy to share that today, my first OpEd piece got published in the UtilityDive — Opinion.
In this OpEd, I present a non-exhaustive list of six reasons why #GAC should not be considered in utility rates.
The piece can be accessed here: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/grid-access-charges-utility-rates-rooftop-solar/641232/
On Wednesday 01/25/2023, I will be giving a talk at the ACM SIGEnergy Graduate Seminar Series. I will cover our work on the “Analysis of Optimal Prosumer and Regulator Decisions under Net Metering”.
Presentation Zoom link: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/j/93208844846?pwd=M3pITlNoYllQQlhGY2JXcElSMUZOdz09
For more information about the seminar series: https://sites.google.com/view/sigenergy-seminar/home
I published a new preprint with Prof. Lang Tong on social optimality for energy communities via a pricing mechanism we called Dynamic Net Energy Metering (DNEM).
Under the proposed mechanism:
community members’ individual surplus maximizations lead to maximum community social welfare.
community members’ individual surplus under Dynamic NEM is higher than the maximum surplus under the utility’s NEM.
the community payment rule satisfies the cost-causation principle.
Preprint link: arXiv.
Preprint title: Achieving Social Optimality for Energy Communities via Dynamic NEM Pricing.
Preprint Abstract: We propose a social welfare maximizing mechanism for an energy community that aggregates individual and shared community resources under a general net energy metering (NEM) policy. Referred to as Dynamic NEM, the proposed mechanism adopts the standard NEM tariff model and sets NEM prices dynamically based on the total shared renewables within the community. We show that Dynamic NEM guarantees a higher benefit to each community member than possible outside the community. We further show that Dynamic NEM aligns the individual member's incentive with that of the overall community; each member optimizing individual surplus under Dynamic NEM results in maximum community's social welfare. Dynamic NEM is also shown to satisfy the cost-causation principle. Empirical studies using real data on a hypothetical energy community demonstrate the benefits to community members and grid operators.
I am happy to announce that I have been selected to be a member of the Saudi Leadership Society (SLS) initiative; a prestigious community that connects members with influential Saudi leaders to achieve their greatest leadership potential and become a force in the future.
My team an I were very pleased to present our project “Shoaa شعاع” at the MiSK Fellowship Annual Competition that was held on Sunday, September 11th.
Our project contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN), primarily on challenges 7 and 9.
The executive summary of our project is provided below:
“ At Shoaa we target developing an adoption-promoting platform consisting of four integrated arms acting collectively to take the customer on the journey from early awareness to the actual installation. The first arm provides customers with visual, audio, and written content to raise awareness and address misconceptions. The second arm equips end-users with the user-friendly tools needed to determine the feasibility and cost of their distributed energy resources installation projects. The third arm focuses on costs by providing end-users with financial solutions enabling them to overcome high installation capital costs. The fourth arm acts as a platform for connecting potential and already-aware end-users to renewable energy sources installers.”
Shoaa.
Shoaa’s contribution to SDG challenges.
