Energy management and control of microgrid using multi-agent systems

A microgrid consists of many small scale distributed energy resources, energy storage devices, loads and communication links. It customarily operates in the grid interconnected mode but is also capable of operating in an islanded mode. With the growing demand of clean energy power generation, the renewable energy generation systems mainly solar, wind and fuel cells are slowly appearing within the grid. Control and management of these equipments are very important for ensuring the stable operation of microgrid. However, conventional power systems are not able to manage the huge number of renewable entities. Hence a decentralized control method called multi-agent system (MAS) is used to manage such components. The MAS is developed in java agent development environment (JADE) which interfaces with Simulink to validate the management and control for a microgrid. The simulation results illustrate that the developed MAS, which helps the smooth transition from grid interconnected to an islanded mode when faults are observed.