Software Defined Connected Prosumer Communities

Electricity generation from renewable sources is radically increasing in an effort to achieve the Sustainable Energy for All objective of doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030. However, the current grid has difficulty accommodating variable power sources like wind and solar. To accelerate the integration of renewable distributed power generation there is a need for the development of a highly reliable, self-regulating, and efficient grid. To address this challenge, we propose Software Defined Connected Prosumer Communities (SDCPC), a transformative paradigm that leverages IoT-enabled energy infrastructure (i. e., smart metering techniques, digital sensors, and intelligent control systems) that turns the electric power infrastructure into an "Internet of Energy" (IoE) to provide power utilities with digital intelligence to the network of prosumers (i. e., consumers that co-generate electricity as a result of the continuous integration of renewable generation).