Dynamic Economic Load Dispatch in Isolated Microgrids with Particle Swarm Optimisation considering Demand Response

A viable option for electrification of remote areas far from power grids is to set up microgrids and feed them with local generation. Such microgrids are referred to as isolated microgrids and due to the lack of possibility of power exchange with the grid, their operation is different from grid-connected microgrids. Isolated microgrids, similar to grid-connected microgrids are equipped with energy management systems including unit commitment and economic dispatch modules. In this paper, the aim is to formulate the dynamic economic load dispatch (DELD) in isolated microgrids, while curtailment of responsive loads and curtailment of renewable power is allowed and load shedding is used as the last resort for balancing generation and demand. The generated power of dispatchable distributed generators (DGs), curtailed power of renewable DGs, curtailed demand and shed power are determined for each time period. The formulated DELD problem is solved with the well-established particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm. The results for a microgrid with four dispatchable DGs and two renewable DGs show the performance of PSO over grey wolf optimisation (GWO) and also indicate the significant effect of demand response in reducing the operation cost of isolated microgrids.