Tackling Heterogeneity with Containerized Wrappers and Synchronization Methods for Multi-Domain Energy Systems

Efficient automation and control of complex workflows and co-simulations are crucial for implementing and executing distributed multi-domain energy systems. Since energy models differ in their runtime environments and data formats, orchestrating them on a single platform is challenging. Moreover, asynchronous systems are gaining importance for the effective simulation, analysis, and evaluation of energy systems. Therefore, this paper proposes a containerized wrapper concept to encapsulate technically heterogeneous energy models, ensuring compatibility across systems. Additionally, this paper presents basic communication interfaces to enable efficient data exchange between energy system models when direct communication is not feasible. Furthermore, three synchronization methods are introduced to automatically address coupling and synchronization requirements, such as workflow management and control and timely execution in asynchronous simulation systems. To evaluate the practical applicability, the aforementioned concepts, interfaces, and methods are implemented and validated through an energy use case study in the open-source PROcess Orchestration Framework (PROOF), a co-simulation platform that automates workflow design, model integration, and distributed execution via a user-friendly graphical interface, thereby eliminating manual coding and bridging the boundaries of technical runtime environments.