Decentralized Optimal Dispatch of Distributed Energy Resources

In this paper, we address the problem of optimally dispatching a set of distributed energy resources (DERs) without relying on a centralized decision maker. We consider a scenario where each DER can provide a certain resource (e.g., active or reactive power) at some cost (namely, quadratic in the amount of resource), with the additional constraint that the amount of resource that each DER provides is upper and lower bounded by its capacity limits. We propose a low-complexity iterative algorithm for DER optimal dispatch that relies, at each iteration, on simple computations using local information acquired through exchange of information with neighboring DERs. We show convergence of the proposed algorithm to the (unique) optimal solution of the DER dispatch problem. We also describe a wireless testbed we developed for testing the performance of the algorithms.