August trial, progress on 2022 release

[John Collins]

Dear colleagues -

First, we apologize for the delayed release of the 2022 1.9 release of the Power TAC server and libraries. It is being held up primarily by our determination to include a credible, scalable customer model that can represent large populations of electric vehicle chargers. That model has turned out to be more complex than we originally expected, but it mostly works well and is nearly complete. However, it won't be ready for the trial round that starts next Monday , 15 August. For that trial, we plan to use the 1.9.0-SNAPSHOT server.

We have two more trial rounds scheduled ahead of the 2022 competition, one next week and one in September. Only two brokers are currently signed up for the trial starting Monday. The next is scheduled for the week of 12 September. We are confident that we will be able to finish up the EV charger model and release the 1.9 server before the September trial. Prior to that time we will merge it into the 1.9.0-SNAPSHOT version so you can pull it down and try it out.

Our current plan is to add a population of 10 000 chargers, serving at least 15 000  EVs. The data for this model comes from a Norwegian company that supports chargers located in multi-family housing developments. It offers enough demand response capacity to seriously affect the daily demand profile. We'll share some data with you in the next couple of weeks.

We look forward to a vigorous competition in October - November.

Best regards -

John