Distributed Online Energy Management in Interconnected Microgrids

In this article, a hierarchical online distributed algorithm (HODA) is developed to achieve optimal energy management in interconnected microgrids (IMG). The energy management objectives include maximizing users' utility, optimizing the output power of controllable generators, and keeping the system operating in an economic manner. We formulate the problem as an online least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) problem, considering both reactive power and system operation characteristics. We then employ averaging fixed horizon control (AFHC) to solve the formulated problem under some mild assumptions on the uncertainties in renewable power generation and load demand. The alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is adopted to decouple the coupled constraints. The proposed online algorithm is asymptotically optimal, since its solution converges to the offline optimal solution. The performance of the proposed algorithm is validated using data traces obtained from a real-world IMG system.