Coordinating energy allocation and process performance using an agent-based approach

Energy efficient systems are receiving worldwide attention in response to the negative effects of global warming. Energy efficient systems are concerned with allocation of adequate resources in the energy domain to meet the energy demand in the process domain. In allocation, a balancing problem arises when the energy resources demanded by the process domain are either lesser or greater than the resources allocated in the energy domain. This situation may lead to suboptimal process performance and inefficient usage of energy. Solving this allocation problem requires a coordination and control mechanism that can balance allocation and demand. In this paper, we propose a novel agent-based software system for solving cooperative control problems. The system produces a Pareto-optimal energy allocation for the process domain while striving to achieve a group objective for balancing the individual requirements of the coupled domains. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated through simulation. Our preliminary results show that it is possible to create a cooperative coordination mechanism that can achieve a group objective without risking sub-optimality or sub-optimization of individual domains.