Distributed population dynamics for active and reactive power dispatch in islanded microgrids

This work proposes a distributed strategy to solve a joint active and reactive power dispatch in isolated microgrids. The information shared among neighboring local controllers allows the algorithm to achieve the optimal dispatch in a secondary layer, which is the reference for primary controllers in each generator. The method based on population dynamics facilitates the implementation in systems with high penetration of distributed generation and a basic communication network. The hierarchical strategy is evaluated in a co-simulation platform to emulate real conditions in a study case of a microgrid with a management control scheme programmed with the distributed optimization technique. Results show that the proposed technique provides an optimal dispatch in distinct scenarios with the expected reduction of losses, improvement in voltage profiles, and minimization of the generation costs.