Optimal Strategies for The Conflict Management Between DSO and Microgrids

In recent decades, European countries have adopted new “sustainable” development models, able to match the growing request of energy with social, economic, and environmental aspects. In this framework, the role of the Distribution System Operator (DSO) totally changes, with novel responsibilities with respect to the large-scale use of renewable energy sources (RESs) expected at the distribution level. The work investigates the management of conflicts between DSOs and microgrids (MGs), recognized in the literature as an important open research issue. The authors proposed a new procedure that aims to regulate the rate of energy flow provided by DSO to MGs, considering the different microgrid priorities as parameters able to influence the DSO's decisions. The strategy is based on a proportional fair allocation control adopted by DSO to balance its own technical and economic interests, with the need to guarantee the good operation of the grid, in presence of the new market actors. Although in literature it is possible to find similar decision support models, to the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to apply this approach to the combined DSO/Microgrids scenario. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is assessed through the analysis of a case study consisting of three MGs, grid-connected, which exchanged energy with the DSO and between them to guarantee their own internal energy balance.