Economic Model Predictive Control-Based Strategies for Cost-Effective Supervision of Community Microgrids Considering Battery Lifetime

Community-based microgrid (C-μGrid) systems are gaining increasing importance nowadays because of the lack of μGrid public investment and management policies. Technoeconomic analysis shows that C-μGrid based on a cluster of microgenerators could be an effective solution when individual systems are not feasible. In this paper, the controlling capability of the central controller of the C-μGrid is improved through an economic model predictive control (EMPC) approach operating at the pricing level that can fulfill the goal of the operational control of the cluster. With a central controller, it is capable of satisfying the demand at prosumer (active energy producer and simultaneous consumer) sides and, at the same time, optimizing the various μGrid contrasting constraints. Emphasis here has been given to the operational constraints related to the battery lifetime, so that the maintenance and replacement costs would be reduced. A comparative analysis has been carried out between the performance of two systems, one based on an IF-THEN-ELSE heuristic supervision logic (S-LOGIC) and the other based on the proposed EMPC strategy. The analysis has been undertaken in a location in Dublin, Ireland, on the basis of available measured data. Simulation shows the effectiveness of implementing the EMPC approach to optimally manage the system.