Toward a Unified Modeling and Control for Sustainable and Resilient Electric Energy Systems

In this paper cyber role in social-ecological energy systems (SEES) is formalized by using the language of large-scale dynamical systems. The key notion of interaction variables is introduced in support of their modeling as multi-layered dynamical systems. It is stressed that qualitatively different cyber designs are required for enabling performance of qualitatively different SEES architectures. In particular, it is proposed that composite control-based hierarchical control lends itself more naturally to supporting large-scale regulated monopolies, and that distributed multi-layered control with or without coordination is key to supporting SEES architectures comprising many decision makers. Today’s hierarchical control is described as a particular case of hierarchical composite control. Having these formulations may help bridge R&D efforts across vastly multi-disciplinary communities working in the field of changing electric energy systems.