Economic asset management of microgrids

This study explores the management of a system of multiple interconnected microgrids in a loop configuration. To facilitate renewable integration and reduce the cost of operation, an economic dispatch model of the distributed energy resources (DER) with dynamic update of the states of the energy storage systems (ESS) to handle the forecasting error in the photovoltaic (PV) power output is developed. By simulating the economic dispatch of DER for various PV output profiles, the minimum size of ESS required in a microgrid can be determined. The sizing and placement of ESS in a loop configuration, be it one ESS for each individual microgrid or one ESS for the whole interconnected system, are also explored. The case study conducted found that the total capacity of the ESS for the interconnected microgrids in a loop configuration with a single shared ESS is smaller than that for the loop configuration with individual ESS, which is in turn smaller than that for the islanded mode.