A Holonic Multi-agent Control System for Networks of Micro-grids

Due to the rapid growth of distributed renewable energy production in the energy markets, future power production and consumption will be more localized. As a consequence, projects and research on Micro-Grids has increased substantially in the recent years. However, the management of energy grids as such will become more complex if numerous Micro-Grids with high levels of autonomy are to be integrated. Modelling energy grids which benefit from the autonomy of the localized energy production and consumption, and at the same time, provide reliable services to the rapidly increasing energy demand seems to be a challenging issue. Combining the advantages of Holonic structures with the distributed nature of Multi-Agent Systems makes it an excellent candidate for the management of this complexity. This paper addresses the need to have autonomous management of the localized generation and consumption, as well as to increase the level of reliability, by a means of forming a Holonic control network of Micro-Grids. This holonic control approach allows the bottom-up formation of the energy grid, from the actual physical components of the grid to a network of interconnected Micro-Grids.