SMArc: A Proposal for a Smart, Semantic Middleware Architecture Focused on Smart City Energy Management

Among the main features that are intended to become part of what can be expected from the Smart City, one of them should be an improved energy management system, in order to benefit from a healthier relation with the environment, minimize energy expenses, and offer dynamic market opportunities. A Smart Grid seems like a very suitable infrastructure for this objective, as it guarantees a two-way information flow that will provide the means for energy management enhancement. However, to obtain all the required information, another entity must care about all the devices required to gather the data. What is more, this entity must consider the lifespan of the devices within the Smart Grid—when they are turned on and off or when new appliances are added—along with the services that devices are able to provide. This paper puts forward SMArc—an acronym for semantic middleware architecture—as a middleware proposal for the Smart Grid, so as to process the collected data and use it to insulate applications from the complexity of the metering facilities and guarantee that any change that may happen at these lower levels will be updated for future actions in the system. 1. Introduction Energy constrains and consumption issues are increasingly putting a strain on the development of human settlements and, more notoriously, medium and large cities. Considering that in the following years more people than ever will live in towns and suburban areas, there are certain challenges that must be faced at a scale hardly ever seen before in terms of mobility, energy resources, or pollution. It is here when the concept of Smart City comes up. As cited by Kehua et al. in [1], a Smart City will use information and communication technologies focused on sensing, analyzing, and integrating data of critical importance obtained from city core systems. According to the authors, a Smart City will be integrating smart planning ideas, smart construction modes, smart development approaches, and smart management methods. Among the aspects the Smart City may deal with—as waste treatment or transport, with intense research being made involving the latter [2]—this paper deals with the issues related to power distribution, delivery and consumption, and the software architectures that can be used to manage and improve the overall performance of these entities. Unsurprisingly, the Smart Grid will play a key role in these improvements. 1.1. The Need of a Smart Grid The Smart Grid has been defined by several authors in fairly different manners. For example, in [3] it is claimed to be “the use of