  The electricity distribution grid was not designed to cope with load dynamics
imposed by high penetration of electric vehicles, neither to deal with the
increasing deployment of distributed Renewable Energy Sources. Distribution
System Operators (DSO) will increasingly rely on flexible Distributed Energy
Resources (flexible loads, controllable generation and storage) to keep the
grid stable and to ensure quality of supply. In order to properly integrate
demand-side flexibility, DSOs need new energy management architectures, capable
of fostering collaboration with wholesale market actors and pro-sumers. We
propose the creation of Virtual Distribution Grids (VDG) over a common physical
infrastructure , to cope with heterogeneity of resources and actors, and with
the increasing complexity of distribution grid management and related resources
allocation problems. Focusing on residential VDG, we propose an agent-based
hierarchical architecture for providing Demand-Side Management services through
a market-based approach, where households transact their surplus/lack of energy
and their flexibility with neighbours, aggregators, utilities and DSOs. For
implementing the overall solution, we consider fine-grained control of smart
homes based on Inter-net of Things technology. Homes seamlessly transact
self-enforcing smart contracts over a blockchain-based generic platform.
Finally, we extend the architecture to solve existing problems on smart home
control, beyond energy management.
