An ADMM + consensus based distributed algorithm for dynamic economic power dispatch in smart grid

In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm for the dynamic economic dispatch problem (DEDP) in a smart grid scenario. Different from the static economic dispatch problem (SEDP), the DEDP aims at minimizing the aggregate operating costs of a group of generators over a time period with ramp rate constraints. The proposed algorithm is based on the average consensus algorithm on undirected graphs and the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Our algorithm is distributed in the sense that no leader or master nodes are needed, while all the nodes (generators) conduct local computation and merely communicate with their neighbors. Convergence analysis shows that the proposed algorithm converges to the optimal solution.