Digitalisation, decentralisation and decarbonisation are transforming approaches to the design and operation of industrial, business and social systems across the globe. In this context, smart grids are electrical grids that include a variety of interoperable communication and control devices to optimally facilitate the production, distribution, and consumption of electricity. They are seen as key enablers in the decarbonisation of both industry and society, and along with renewable energy will power the smart, connected industries and business of the future. This talk will outline innovative and disruptive services for energy control and management developed within the context of the IDEAS, DR-BoB, InteGridy and REACT and VICPorts funded research and innovation projects. The talk will focus on the use of distributed, IoT-based computing and control architectures for data-driven energy asset modelling and to generate coordinated, optimal (or near-optimal) dispatch instructions for energy assets in real-time within the context of a rolling-horizon optimization framework. The talk will then describe details of implementation within a Fog computing framework, and will present simulation and practical results for algorithms tailored to dispatch of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Plant, domestic Smart Appliances, Wind Turbines, HVAC loads and port cargo handling equipment . Finally, it will outline some of the open issues and challenges in related Smart Grid areas which should be of interest to the wider industrial and mechanical/manufacturing engineering community.
Keywords: Informatics, Fog Computing, Optimization, Smart Energy Management, Digital Twinning

Michael Short is a professor of control engineering and systems informatics at Teesside University and leads the multidisciplinary Centre for Sustainable Engineering. He holds a BEng degree in electronic and electrical engineering (1999, Sunderland) and a PhD degree in real-time robot control (2003, Sunderland). Michael’s research interests encompass aspects of applied control engineering and systems informatics applied to smart energy systems and robotics. He has authored over 160 reviewed publications in international conferences and journals, has received over 1400 citations and has won six best paper awards. He currently has an h-index of 22 and an i-10 index of 40. He has supervised six PhD completions and is investigator on numerous completed and ongoing funded research projects. He is an associate editor for the International Journal of Energies, a full member of the IET and a fellow of the HEA.