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

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 ACCESS Energies 2010, 3 1973 cooperative operation scheme. We show the functionality and the feasibility of the proposed multiagent system through several tests.