Optimal energy management of community microgrids: A risk-based multi-criteria approach

Community microgrids (CMGs) have been developing nowadays as an initiative to operate modern electric distribution systems in a more economical, reliable, and environmentally friendly manner than the existing centralized electricity grid which benefited both distribution system operator and consumers. In this paper, the optimal energy management of CMGs is formulated considering distributed energy resources and thermal and electrical demands in CMGs. The objective function of the proposed methodology consists of the total cost of CMGs operation, the total cost of energy not supplied in CMGs, and total cost of emission produced in CMGs in order to comprehensively manage the CMG operation. Moreover, the uncertainty of renewable energy resources, electricity price, and demanded power of CMGs are considered in the proposed methodology. In addition, two risk evaluation measures are employed to cope with existing risks in the CMG operation. Furthermore, a number of sensitivity studies are accomplished to investigate the effects of important parameters on the performance of the proposed approach. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is examined on a test system.