Economic Analysis of Energy Scheduling and Trading in Multiple-Microgrids Environment

The microgrids (MGs) are considered to be a key component of future power systems. The increased integration of distributed energy resources (DER) has led to critical challenges in energy management (EM) such as uncertainty, pricing and optimal dispatch. The need for control of DER, optimal resource allocation and EM, requires interconnection of MGs, leading to formation of multiple-microgrid (MMG). One of the fundamental objective of MMG is to make optimal use of DER's within various MGs for optimal benefits. At a particular instance, some MGs might have excess energy generated, while some other MGs might buy the excess energy to meet local demands and storage requirements. The MMG facilitates energy trading between the grid and MG and amongst the MGs in order to achieve efficient energy sharing. In this paper, we evolve through different EM and scheduling strategies using visual basic for applications (VBA). The system considered has 3 MGs interconnected forming a MMG with each MG equipped with PV system and energy storage system (ESS). The objective of the strategies is to maximize the profits of individual MG while benefiting the whole MMG in total. The costs of implementing the proposed strategies are calculated and an economic analysis of various strategies is presented.