This document describes the work done to develop a platform for emulating a community of residential users. The developed platform can simulate the behavior of a large number of users, ensuring that their aggregate impact is significant from an energy perspective and relevant to the electrical grid. The emulation encompasses both how users provide their information and how third parties can send price and system signals to the users, thereby influencing their behavior. Although various pilot projects related to energy communities are currently underway, having an emulation platform allows for testing different scenarios without the constraints of technology, legislation, and time that these projects inevitably face.

The model used to emulate individual users is based on second-by-second recordings of the consumption of various types of appliances. Different user habits were also considered, both for determining the time slots for appliance usage and for the use of electric vehicles, to simulate various types of users. By combining “typical” users through the differentiation of appliance setups, virtual users with an energy footprint similar to that of real users can be created.

Each user also has the option to be managed by an energy management system, which can schedule loads and set power setpoints for the storage system and electric vehicle.

For internal information exchange within the emulation platform, communication levels have been established for monitoring and controlling the emulated users, and a custom data model has been developed. A dedicated communication channel has also been set up for the interaction of emulated users with the real world. Through this interface, it is possible to import real-time power data from second-generation electronic meters via the Chain 2 communication channel, which is currently being tested at RSE.

Additionally, the applicability of the SAREF ontology, used in the EU within the InterConnect project, in which RSE is a partner, was investigated for the information exchange between the residential user emulator and the PREVO laboratory.