A Multi-Agent Machine Learning Framework for Intelligent Energy Demand Management

In order to cope with the unpredictability of the energy market and provide rapid response when supply is strained by demand, an emerging technology, called energy demand management, enables appliances to manage and defer their electricity consumption when price soars. Initial experiments with our multi-agent, power load management simulator, showed a marked reduction in energy consumption when price-based constraints were imposed on the system. However, these results also revealed an unforeseen, negative effect: that reducing consumption for a bounded time interval decreases system stability. The reason is that price-driven control synchronizes the energy consumption of individual agents. Hence price, alone, is an insufficient measure to define global goals in a power load management system. In this chapter the authors explore the effectiveness of a multi-objective, system-level goal which combines both price and system stability. The authors apply the commonly known reinforcement learning framework, enabling the energy distribution system to be both cost saving and stable. They test the robustness of their algorithm by applying it to two separate systems, one with indirect feedback and one with direct feedback from local load agents. Results show that their method is not only adaptive to multiple systems, but is also able to find the optimal balance between both system stability and energy cost.