Efficient Model Predictive Control Strategies for Resource Management in an Islanded Microgrid

Abstract

The energy research community is continuously pursuing improvements in power system resiliency and reliability. Microgrids offer a unique opportunity for enhanced reliability and resiliency by utilizing localized generation and energy storage when grid power is unavailable or too expensive. Energy management is a critical aspect of these systems to ensure proper balancing of sources and ensuring power supply to critical loads with minimum cost, especially in an islanded microgrid. This paper presents a hierarchical real-time optimization with mathematical formulations to achieve optimal operation for an islanded microgrid. The optimization is implemented using simple numerically tractable model predictive control strategies and enables appropriate decisions in response to constantly changing conditions. The optimization method is extended for experimentation within the real-time simulation. Simulation results show that the proposed resource management algorithm shows near-optimal performance while effectively dealing with uncertainties in forecasting.