a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 13 July 2014
Received in revised form 25 March 2015
Accepted 18 April 2015
Available online 14 May 2015
Keywords:
Distributed cost optimization (DCO)
Load shedding (LS)
Improved average consensus algorithm
(IACA)
Global information
Synchronization processing
a b s t r a c t
This paper addresses a new distributed cost optimization (DCO) method for load shedding (LS) of an
islanded microgrid considering cost. A two-layer improved average consensus algorithm (IACA) of
multi-agent system (MAS) is proposed, and the consensus characteristic of which is analyzed in detail.
With the global information discovered in the rst layer of the IACA, the DCO of LS can be solved by using
the synchronization processing of the IACA in the second layer. PSCAD/EMTDC-based simulation models
are built to study the value settings of consensus constants and the performances of the proposed DCO
method. Simulation results veried the convergence improvement of the IACA and the effectiveness of
the proposed DCO.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
There will be more microgrids in future power systems, including grid-connected microgrids and islanded microgrids [1,2]. An
islanded microgrid is more likely to occur a disturbance because
of the randomness and uncertainty of renewable distributed generators (DGs) and the low-inertia of the microgrid [3]. Thus a sudden change in generation or load poses a challenge for stabilizing
the frequency of an islanded microgrid. Furthermore, a large disturbance could result in a rapid frequency drop or even microgrid
blackout [4]. The best way to maintain the stability of the frequency response is to execute a load shedding (LS) scheme [5,6].
Accordingly, many studies focus on adaptive and intelligent LS
schemes to avoid the instability caused by shedding an improper
amount of load. On one hand, the magnitude of the active power
unbalance estimation method based on rate of change of frequency
(ROCOF) and system inertia constant was proposed in [710], by
using the estimated value the amount of load shedding can be
determined and an accurate and quick LS can be implemented in
a central control manner. On the other hand, a multi-agent system
(MAS) based LS is introduced to obtain adaptive LS, the control
modes of the MAS-based LS are centralized or distributed with
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 13814005169; fax: +86 25 87796196.
E-mail address: wgu@seu.edu.cn (W. Gu).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijepes.2015.04.006
0142-0615/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
90
Nomenclature
LS
DCO
MAS
IACA
MC
DG
load shedding
distributed cost optimization
multi-agent system
improved average consensus algorithm
marginal cost
distributed generator
DER
MT
WT
PV
MH
k1
91
Start
Fsys < FLS
A1
A2
An
A3
Global Power Sharing in the
first layer of IACA
First Layer IACA
Local evaluation for
the cost of load shedding
An-1
A2(2)
A1(2)
An(2)
A3(2)
An-1(2)
End
Communication Networks
3
4
Uncertain Links
To obtain a stable algorithm, the updating matrix and the convergence constant are needed to be properly designed. In this
study, the IACA is proposed to improve the convergence rate of
consensus, accordingly different value settings of convergence constants are compared. By the verication proof in Fig. 2, when
1 < h < 0, DL 6 0 is yielded, which implies that the stability of the
92
Case studies
Microgrid architecture
To test the effectiveness of proposed approach, a PSCAD/EMTDC
based simulation system is developed. The conguration of simulated autonomous microgrid and its corresponding communication
topology are shown in Fig. 4. Note that an agent can only communicate with its immediate neighboring agents in the communication topology. The MAS-based microgrid is modeled by the
PSCAD/EMTDC and Matlab interface technologies. More specically, the MAS are simulated in Matlab, while the microgrid is
operated in PSCAD, and the user-dened interface (UDI) models
in PSCAD are dened to associate these two platforms together.
Through these interface technologies, the IACA based global information sharing and the DCO can be implemented and veried
[14,18].
The types and parameters of all lines are shown in Table 1. In
Table 1, OL is overhead line, SC is customer service line; R1 and
X1 are the positive sequence resistance and reactance, R0 and X0
are the zero sequence resistance and reactance respectively.
All the data of DERs and loads are shown in Tables 2 and 3
[23,24].
Case A: overload scenario
At the beginning of the simulation case, the microgrid works in
grid-connected mode and all DERs work in PQ mode. At t = 2 s, the
microgrid islands from the main grid, and MT operates from PQ to
V/f control mode to maintain the power balance of the islanded
microgrid. When t = 5 s, the autonomous microgrid occurs an overload accident, as a result the power balance between supply and
demand does not match at the moment and the frequency starts
to uctuate, and the LS is implemented based on the proposed
DCO when the frequency of the simulated microgrid is lower than
49.5 Hz. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 5.
93
Table 1
Lines types and parameters.
Type
R1
X1
R0
X0
0.284
0.497
3.690
1.380
0.871
0.822
0.284
0.497
3.690
1.380
0.871
0.822
1.136
2.387
13.64
5.52
3.48
2.04
0.417
0.447
0.472
0.418
0.409
0.421
Table 2
Data of DERs.
Load
DER
Capacity/kVA
Pref/kW
Control mode
MT
WT
PV
MH
100
40
30
50
100
15
10
50
PQ-V/f
PQ
MPPT
PQ
Load
Load
Load
Load
Load
1
2
3
4
5
Active power/kW
Reactive power/kVar
li
5.13
22.50
54.72
5.13
22.50
2.48
10.90
15.96
2.48
10.90
0.1
0.4
0.8
0.2
0.5
94
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 5. Control performances of the proposed method in Case A.
(3) Distributed optimal LS: Lastly depending on the optimization results from DCO, the amounts of load shedding for each
load can be derived, and the LS strategy is carried out to
95
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 6. Control performances of the proposed method in Case B.
and LS is needed to be implemented when the frequency of microgrid drops down lower than 49.5 Hz. The simulation results are
shown in Fig. 6.
Firstly the updating matrix W of IACA updates according to the
updating method described in Fig. 2. By using the proposed IACA
updating method, only the neighboring agents of agent 4 needs
to update during the plug out operation. The global information
is shared as in Case A, and four representative values of the convergence constant h are compared to nd a better setting of h.
Observed from Fig. 6(a) that, the IACA reach consensus within
96
Conclusion
This study proposed and veried a two-layered IACA based DCO
method for LS of an islanded microgrid. Several related problems,
including the convergence improvement of the consensus method,
the DCO of load shedding considering marginal cost, and the adaptation of plug-and-play operations, have been studied in detail.
Two representative cases are simulated to illustrate the advantages
of the proposed method: (1) it is a new fully DCO by using the synchronization processing of IACA; (2) it is an accurate optimal load
shedding which takes cost and marginal cost into considerations;
and (3) it can meet the requirements for plug-and-play operations
of DGs.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National High
Technology Research and Development Program of China (863
Program Grant No. 2011AA05A107), the National Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51277027), the Natural Science
Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (Grant No.
SBK201122387) and the State Grid Corporation of China.
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