Enabling Customers through Distributed Economic Dispatch

A distributed algorithm is introduced, which dispatches power for radial electric networks while also accounting for heterogeneous demand functions, demonstrating computational feasibility, and respecting the physical limits of the system. The distributed economic dispatch enables small end-users to aggregate themselves such that they can communicate their diverse preferences to the local substation. Unlike other approaches proposed in the literature, the distributed algorithm introduced here converges to an optimal solution with only two sweeps of information exchange once with parent nodes and another time with children nodes. A proof-of-concept example is demonstrated on a 46-bus system under varying levels of DERs, followed by a discussion of the technical and economic benefits of using the distributed algorithm.