Intelligent RMPS Allocation for Microgrids Support During Scheduled Islanded Operation

New opportunities enabled by renewable mobile power stations (RMPSs), in association with microgrids (MGs) ability to operate islanded to the main grid, present a likely solution to ensure power system novel reliability requirements in face of the increasing number of severe disruptive events. In this perspective, this paper proposes a novel intelligent RMPS allocation method to support MGs during scheduled islanded operation. In this mode, the isolated operation of a MG is beforehand planned to mitigate the effects caused by possible predictable contingencies, e.g. weather-related events, as well as programmed maintenance. For this, first a novel energy management strategy (EMS) based on dynamic programming specifically designed for MG scheduled islanded operation is proposed. Next, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) method modified to ensure a continuous search space in the face of discrete load shedding policies is developed to determine the adequate allocation of RMPS. The proposed method is simulated considering different scenarios for a MG system considering local distributed generation capacity, electric vehicles penetration, load shedding based on priority groups, as well as technical and operational limits. The obtained results showcase the proposed approach ability to meaningfully improve MG service capacity during scheduled islanded operation.