Distributed resource allocation optimization with discrete-time communication and application to economic dispatch in power systems

In this paper, the problem of distributed resource allocation optimization is investigated for continuous-time multi-agent systems with discrete-time communication. A gradient-based continuous-time algorithm is proposed to solve this network resource allocation problem. A sufficient condition on the communication period is given to show that the proposed algorithm can achieve the exact optimization with exponential convergence rate. Finally, an example of economic dispatch in power grids is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented algorithm.