Economic dispatch of multi-microgrids considering flexible load based on distributed consensus algorithm

This paper investigates the economic dispatch (ED) problem of multi-microgrids considering the flexible loads based on distributed consensus algorithm. At first, based on the global interconnection of multi-microgrids, the structure topology diagram of distributed generator nodes is designed, and then the flexible load is considered as adjustable load and added into the fixed loads. Next, a multi-microgrids economic dispatch (MMED) model is constructed with the goal of minimizing the operating cost of the entire system. The proposed MMED model is a two-layer coordinated optimization model, with the power transmission cost between each microgrid as the multi-microgrids layer framework and the internal operating costs of a single microgrid as the sub-microgrid layer framework. The distributed consensus algorithm is designed to solve the MMED problem by considering the constraint conditions of each generator node. Finally, some examples are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. That is, when considering the total load demand changes from 1500 kW (example 1) to 1600 kW (example 2), the total generator power of three microgrids can correctly adapt to changes and meet load demands, this situation is the same with multi-period simulation (example 3), which is more general and applicable.