Review of Microgrid Energy Management Techniques on Virtual Power Plant System

Abstract

The growing energy supply and demand are slowly changing the nature of power transmission and distribution, and the application of virtual power plant (VPP) has already gained traction in countries like Sweden, Germany, and Belgium. The dynamic nature of the VPP platform to connect multiple microgrids within the same geographical location, and to some degree, large-scale nationwide energy resources make it a state-of-the-art technological innovation. The platform has been applied for distributed energy resources (DERs) and dispatchable generation units such as combined heat and power (CHP) to monitor and control energy production and consumption, which also includes the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) into the energy mix. The energy management system (EMS) is one of the function modules in the control system of the VPP and can regulate energy stored and discharged from the energy storage system (ESS), generally, microgrids are known to connect regions far away from the main grid and can operate on islanding mode or on-grid, and they largely facilitate electrification of remote areas as energy production is done onsite. Therefore, in this review control strategies for energy management systems are analyzed and compared, e.g., Multi-Agent System (MAS), and Model Predictive Control (MPC), i.e., chance-constrained optimization, with the main emphasis being on minimizing costs and facilitating micro-grid stability through economical dispatch of energy generational units.

Keywords

• Virtual Power Plant
• Energy Management System
• Multi-Agent system
• Model Predictive Control
• Chance-Constrained Optimization.

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