Consensus‐based operational framework for self‐healing in multi‐microgrid systems

Abstract

Recently, microgrids (MGs) present a vital role in the transformation of the existing power networks to the smart grids. Connecting MGs to construct the multi-microgrid (MMG) system enhances the robustness of the system against disturbances and upgrades overall network performance. In this paper, the MMG, as a source of self-healing support to the distribution networks, is analysed extensively. In fact, the MMG strengthens the self-healing of the network by participating in the restoration of disturbed loads. In this study, an operational framework is proposed for the self-healing problem in radial interconnected MGs based on two-stage cyber communication network architecture. In the first stage, the local control system (LCS) within each MG, schedules the accessible resources according to the local power consumption target. In the second stage, a number of LCSs are communicated globally to perform self-healing action. The communication of LCSs is accomplished using a consensus algorithm. Nevertheless, when a fault takes place in MG and a line is eliminated, the healthy MGs, due to demand and supply information in the first stage, supply the on-outage loads as far as possible. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, two benchmark distribution networks (the 33-bus and the 119-bus) are employed.