Economic Dispatch of a Microgrid using the Distributed Optimization Methods of Consensus and Diffusion

As the power distribution systems evolve mostly driven by the growth of distributed generation, microgrids emerge as a vital paradigm that enables boosting renewable energy deployment. Microgrids are small power systems that include conventional and renewable sources, storage systems and controllable loads. The operation of microgrids brings out some challenges related to economic dispatch due to the randomness of the renewable generation and the loads. This paper presents an optimal economic dispatch of a microgrid with distributed energy resources. In this study, enhanced distributed optimization methods of Consensus and Diffusion are used in the economic dispatch of an isolated microgrid, and a comparative evaluation between them regarding convergence, precision and computational effort is given. The results showed a suitable performance of both optimization methods with a better performance of the Diffusion method as to computational efforts.