Guest Editorial Special Issue on Automation and Optimization for Energy Systems

As innovative energy-related technologies are rapidly developing, new elements are populating the electrical power grid, such as unpredictable renewable energies, plug-in electric vehicles (EVs), smart electrical home appliances, energy efficient homes/buildings, and distributed energy storage. All these elements induce a paradigm shift in power grids, which are evolving from producer-controlled structures to large, distributed, and customer-interactive ones, enhancing the coupling between the physical and the information layer. In order to be effectively employed on a large scale, all these elements must rely on automation, as well as on optimization methods, for the efficient management and consumption of energy resources under varying stochastic conditions. Driven by these changes, power grids have become complex and large-scale platforms with growing needs for automation and optimal energy management services, a concept that can be referred to as smart grids.