Microgrid Energy Management based on Approximate Dynamic Programming

Microgrid energy management stands for challenging optimization problem where continuous (economic dispatch) and discrete optimization (unit commitment) tasks are solved. Often Microgrid optimization leads to complex problem where optimization methods usually meet curse of dimensionality. We adopt approximate dynamic programming (ADP) as the promising optimization technique which can overcome curse of dimensionality. In this paper, energy management system based on ADP is introduced and its behavior is demonstrated on small scale Microgrid which is connected to distribution network and includes wind turbine, chiller plant, thermal storage and cooling load. The paper describes policy search approach to ADP and selected approximation architectures in the context of energy optimization. The ADP results are compared with the results of the solution based on dynamic programming approach.