Optimizing Energy Management of Smart Grid using Reinforcement Learning aided by Surrogate models built using Physics-informed Neural Networks

Abstract: Optimizing the energy management within a smart grids scenario presents significant challenges, primarily due to the complexity of real-world systems and the intricate interactions among various components. Reinforcement Learning (RL) is gaining prominence as a solution for addressing the challenges of Optimal Power Flow in smart grids. However, RL needs to iterate compulsively throughout a given environment to obtain the optimal policy. This means obtaining samples from a, most likely, costly simulator, which can lead to a sample efficiency problem. In this work, we address this problem by substituting costly smart grid simulators with surrogate models built using Phisics-informed Neural Networks (PINNs), optimizing the RL policy training process by arriving to convergent results in a fraction of the time employed by the original environment.