To Centralize or to Distribute: That Is the Question: A Comparison of Advanced Microgrid Management Systems

Abstract

The advanced microgrid is envisioned to be a critical part of the future smart grid because of its local intelligence, automation, interoperability, and distributed energy resources (DER) hosting capability. The enabling technology of advanced microgrids is the microgrid management system (MGMS). In this article, we discuss and review the concept of the MGMS and state-of-the-art solutions regarding centralized and distributed MGMSs in the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, from which we observe a general tendency toward decentralization.