Intelligent self-describing power grids

In the development of the Web, semantics are seen as a central key to enable and to support smarter forms of collaboration and process control. In this context, semantics may be essential to manage future power systems with significant share of power generated by distributed energy resources in an intelligent way - as required in the framework of smart grid designs. The EU funded project STEN (Intelligent Self-describing Technical and Environmental Networks) lays foundations for advanced monitoring systems and sensors by applying Semantic Web technologies, Web Services and rule-bases to potentially constantly changing networks composed of network components ranging from simple sensors to complex plants such as combined heat and power plants. This paper goes beyond the paper presented in the CIRED 2007 Conference [1] and will present the results of the now finished S-TEN project (www.s-ten.eu) featuring the work being done to develop and use technologies designed to provide functionalities required by future power grids.