POWER DISTRIBUTION CONTROL WITH ASSET ASSIMILATION AND OPTIMIZATION

A power control system is provided for controlling a set of power assets (17, 18. 19) connected to a grid (50), in which each power asset has a local controller for controlling the asset under a local control loop and is capable of receiving instruction from a server (25) to influence its operation in accordance with a service model process controlled by the server. The server maintains asset models (406) that represent asset behaviour, each asset model being in real-time communication with its asset to dynamically inform the model of the status of the asset, maintains multiple service models that represent service model processes that involve different power assets; and maintains mappings (408) that map assets to service models that can be fulfilled by those assets. An optimizer (404) is provided for determining which assets are to participate in which service models. The server sends instructions to the selected assets to attempt to fulfil the services, preferably without departing from local boundary conditions of the asset's local control loop.