A Multiagent System for Autonomous Operation of Islanded Microgrids Based on a Power Market Environment

Abstract

Abstract:One of the most important requirements of microgrid operation is to maintain a constant frequency such as 50 Hz or 60 Hz, which is closely related to a power balance between supply and demand. In general, microgrids are connected to power grids and surplus/shortage power of microgrids is traded with power grids. Since islanded microgrids are isolated from any power grids, the decrease in generation or load-shedding can be used to maintain the frequency when a power imbalance between supply and demand occurs. The power imbalance restricts the electricity use of consumers in the case of supply shortage and the power supply of suppliers in the case of supply surplus. Therefore, the islanded microgrid should be operated to reduce power imbalance conditions. Meanwhile, the microgrid is a small-scale power system and the employment of skillful operators for effective operation of its components requires high costs. Therefore, automatic operation of the components is effective realistically. In addition, the components are distributed in the microgrid and their operation should consider their owners' profits. For these reasons, a multiagent system application can be a good alternative for microgrid operation. In this paper, we present a multiagent system for autonomous operation of the islanded microgrid on a power market environment. The proposed multiagent system is designed based on a OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2010, 3 1973 cooperative operation scheme. We show the functionality and the feasibility of the proposed multiagent system through several tests.

A Review on Multi-Agent Technology in Micro-Grid Control

“…In [30] , MGCC Agent directly inquires each CG Agent its maximal active power output and judges whether the imbalance can be eliminated by CGs only, if not, MGCC Agent orders storage devices to get involved. If the total capacity of storage devices is not enough, then a part of loads will be cut.…”

A Communication Framework in Multiagent System for Islanded Microgrid

“…The frequency affects a power balance between supply and demand. Figure 1 shows an operation scheme for power balance in the islanded microgrid [17]. The information of power supply, power demand, and status of storages is collected and a condition of power balance is checked.…”

“…Figure 2 illustrates the operation procedure of the microgrid simply where an operation plan prepared in the previous interval is implemented in the next interval. The operation is related to planning action for operational intervals and is composed of two steps: planning and implementation [15][16][17][18][19]. In general, the interval period is determined by microgrid operation rules, for example, a few minutes or a few dozen minutes.…”

“…In our previous works [15][16][17][18][19], a multiagent system for microgrid was defined as follows: where OAV (objective attribute values) type data is composed of an object, an attribute of the object, and the value of the attribute. Table 2 is the communication protocols and Tables 3 and 4 are the designed performatives for the protocols [17]. Here, P1 is used for interactions between the MGOCC agents and the DG agents and P2 is used for between the MGOCC agents and the Load/DS agents.…”

“…Since Professor Lasseter proposed the concept of the microgrid in 2001 [1], many technologies such as power control [2][3][4][5], protection schemes [6,7], simulators, and field tests [8][9][10] for microgrids have been studied. In addition, multiagent system applications have been studied for efficient and economic control and operation of microgrids [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”