Microgrid energy management system: A state-of-the-art review

Abstract

Over the past decades, the exploitation of renewable sources has significantly increased as a carbon-neutral mean of electricity supply. A Microgrid (MG) represents a suitable concept to integrate renewable resources, in which local generation source and Energy Storage System (ESS) are coordinated to cover the customer demand in any conditions. In addition, Energy Management System (EMS) is investigated to allocate optimally the power output of the Distributed Generator (DG) units, economically satisfy the Load Demand (LD), properly regulate the frequency and voltage of the MG systems, and automatically assure a smooth transition between Grid Connected (GC) and islanded operation modes. This paper reviews MG-EMS, which has evolved in recent frameworks, discussing MG generation and storage units, the use of Electric Vehicles (EVs) as backup device, the installation of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems to supply thermal requirements, MG-EMS objectives function and system constraints and recent optimization algorithms.