An energy management system for hybrid microgrids in remote communities

A new energy management system is proposed in this paper to optimally schedule different generation technologies in hybrid AC/DC microgrid for remote communities. The proposed scheme relies on a microgrid controller (MGC), which minimizes the operational costs for different distributed generation (DG) units in the islanded microgrid by sending droop characteristics parameters to the DG units to ensure optimum power sharing for each time slot. Moreover, the MGC controls the customers' appliances and water desalination units to ensure optimal utilization of the system assets with minimum operational costs while satisfying the customer requirements. In addition, the MGC sends operational parameters for the interlinking converters between the AC and DC subsystems to ensure stable operation of the microgrid by controlling power exchange between the AC and DC sides. The energy management problem is formulated as a mixed-integer non-linear programming, which is solved by the MGC. Optimal decisions are sent to local controllers and smart meters to be implemented. Simulation results on an islanded hybrid AC/DC microgrid are provided. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach.