Energy management and cost-benefit analysis of smart grid

A single microgrid can only generate and distribute power within a localized area. Furthermore, in the event of unavailability/failure of one or more distributed energy resources (DERs) in the single microgrid during islanded mode of operation, the single microgrid itself may not be secure enough to meet its own load demand due to restricted energy generation capability. The additional power is required from utility grid or other microgrids in which they are in adjacent locations and interconnected to supply power to each other. Thus, an Energy Management System (EMS) is required to monitor, control, and optimize the generation, distribution and transmission of energy. This thesis presents a hierarchical architecture design for multi-microgrid using the Multi-Agent System concept to be incorporated into the Energy Management System. The optimum solution for the energy management is Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) to determine the minimum energy trading costs in the multi-microgrid system and the power balance within the multi-microgrid system is achieved through energy trading between different microgrids in a smart grid system. In general, current smart grid control systems adopt either the centralized or decentralized control strategy. The proposed novel hierarchical multi-microgrid control system using the Multi-Agent System (MAS) concept has the capability to handle multi-objective and multi-constraint complex systems. Furthermore, the novel energy trading scheme by using the Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) is able to improve the economical and effectiveness of the control systems for all the agents in a multi-microgrid system. The proposed hierarchical multi-microgrid system based MAS is a pioneering research in the smart grid domain. The interconnection of multiple microgrid systems in adjacent locations to assist during supply constraint in a single islanded microgrid system will ensure enhanced reliability and security of supply. This novel approach is expected to replace the undesired load shedding technique employed in current smart grid systems. In addition, the energy management system is developed to achieve optimum energy trading between different microgrids in a smart grid system. Currently, most research workers on smart grid focus on the development and application of the smart grid concept. However, there have been very few research work (none in the Singapore context) addressing the realistic conditions for implementing the smart grid concept. The novel business models, which include cost-benefit analysis of infrastructure of smart grid, especially in the areas of investment costs, cost savings and payback years for integration of smart grid in Singapore, is proposed in this thesis.Master of Engineerin