Autonomous Energy Management of a Micro-Grid using Multi Agent System

Abstract

Multi Agent System (MAS) is a distributed system with loosely coupled agents; work together to solve problems that are beyond their individual capabilities.The objective of this paper is to implement MAS in Java Agent Development Environment (JADE) for distributed, autonomous energy management of a solar micro-grid. A grid connected solar micro-grid, which contains two solar Photo Voltaic (PV) systems, each contains a local consumer, a solar PV system and a battery, is considered. Load usage patterns and solar power generated in the two solar units are measured. Each constituents of the micro-grid is taken as an agent and these agents take decision autonomously as well as collectively for optimal energy management. The proposed approach autonomously manages the dynamics due to intermittent nature of solar power, randomness of load, dynamic pricing of grid and choose the best possible action to stabilize and optimize the solar micro-grid. MAS has the flexibility for plug and play and so solar power and load is added or removed seamlessly without affecting the micro-grid operations. Furthermore, MAS increases the operational efficiency, leading to economic and environmental optimization of solar micro-grid. All the smart grid features are implemented in the micro-grid, which is not attempted so far. The simulation outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed MAS in distributed, autonomous energy management of micro-grid, solving the constraints of using solar power. All agent actions for stabilizing the grid can be accomplished in less than ten milliseconds, taking automation of micro-grid to the next higher level.