Role of Energy Management Systems (EMS) in the Development of Eco Cities: A System Oriented Review Introducing an Agent Perspective

The permeation of electric/hybrid-electric vehicles in the transportation sector will increase the transition of energy demand from fuel supply systems to grid-based systems for power support. Challenges in electrified transport ecosystem development are multifaceted. Today energy systems are developed for vehicles as independent and isolated units, nevertheless, the view of eco-cities as smart energy flow systems have opened new perspectives. In the future the overall energy demand has to be considered, relying on uncertain consumer behaviors, the eco-energy production generating from the city’s assets as well as non-renewable resources and storages allowing additional and smooth power flow. The dependency on production constraints has to be considered. Finally, energy transfer relies on various mechanisms to share energy within the overall system. To guide the energy flow towards demand satisfaction and grid stability it becomes obvious that information and communication technologies are needed. Through a systematic review and analysis, this paper aims to highlight the goals of smart city development from the perspective of electrical sources and sinks (mainly the transportation sector), the principal options to store and to control energy flows with respect to the power grid, the electric utilities, fleet operators, and electric vehicles. The paper formulates a multi-agent system problem to describe the role of the entities which are assumed as agents maximizing the renewable energy options and minimizing the energy losses. This can be utilized by considering scenarios of multiple agents working in co-ordination with each other and with the environment taking into account system interactions and constraints.