Congestion Control for Actively Steered Power Flows in the Energy Packet Grid

Todays power distribution grids were not designed with the ongoing energy transition in mind. Increased electricity demand and distributed energy generation threaten to overload existing power lines. To avoid expensive grid reinforcement, a more efficient usage of the current infrastructure is required. Energy routers are a novel building block of the future power grid and offer an alternative approach: the active steering of power flows. By linking previously unconnected parts of the power grid, energy routers can steer power flows on alternative paths to unburden overloaded power lines. Our earlier work introduced basic protocols capable of steering power flows across energy routers, however, an essential building block is missing for practical operation: congestion control. The core contribution of this paper is the introduction of congestion control for power flows across energy router. By introducing congestion control, power flows are dynamically adjusted based on the available power line capacity, protecting energy routers and the infrastructure of the power grid. We implemented and evaluated the congestion control in simulations as well as with real hardware in a laboratory setting, using energy router prototypes.