A Decentralized Multi Agent ANN Based Control Technique for Operation Cost Optimization of Isolated Microgrid Systems

Abstract

With an ever increasing electrical load demand and the associated fuel price to generate it, researchers are compelled to find alternate, cheap and environment friendly ways for power generation to cater to this techno-economic conundrum. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are now being integrated in Distributed Generation (DG) based environment as a solution to this problem, hence resulting in Microgrids, with multiple sources and loads demarcating their footprint. Control and management of a diverse generation profile within a single microgrid is arduous and computationally intensive for a single centralized controller. This paper addresses this inherent problem and proposes a decentralized Multiagent based intelligent control technique to efficiently encompass the heterogeneous generation profile of Microgrids. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based intelligent agents are deployed at the planning stage for each component of the Microgrid. These agents are responsible for maintaining individual local control parameters within the prescribed control margins, hence creating a multi-agent environment in a Microgrid structure. The proposed intelligent multi-agent control scheme is tested on a test system to furnish its merits over its traditionally employed counterparts. Simulation results show that ANN integration not only reduced the computational burden but also reduced the overall operating cost (around 10.2 %) by reducing the thermal generation.