Optimization and energy management for cluster of interconnected microgrids with intermittent non-polluting and diesel generators in off-grid communities

This study proposes an optimization and energy management system for a cluster of interconnected microgrids with intermittent non-polluting generators, based on renewable resources, battery storage and diesel generators. The cluster operates off-grid and community microgrids are interconnected to achieve better power performance by allowing mutual and bidirectional power exchange. Non-polluting generators, battery storage and power exchange reduce the contribution of diesel generators, the operation cost and the fuel consumption in the cluster. A bidirectional power exchange mechanism is proposed to avoid simultaneous bidirectional power exchange between two or more microgrids. The optimization and energy management are carried out by considering the transmission distance. Case studies are conducted for high and low renewable energy penetration and demand response for hourly and day-ahead operation. The results show that the proposed method offers optimal solutions to operate efficiently the cluster while maintaining a proper power exchange under minimum operation cost and fuel consumption. It has been found that the optimized interconnected hybrid microgrids reduce the daily operation cost and the fuel consumption by 6.74% and 4.33%, respectively, compared to hybrid microgrids without power exchange, and by 24.44% and 54.30%, respectively, compared to isolated microgrids based only on renewable energy and diesel generators.