Effects of Implementing Demand Response Programs in Microgrids in the Presence of Renewable Energy Resources and Energy Storage Systems

Sometimes renewable energy resources (RERs), energy storage systems (ESSs), and responsive loads are applied to reduce the generated power of fossil fuel distributed generators (DGs) which are costly and produce environmental pollutants. Therefore, the optimized microgrid planning is necessary for minimizing the cost and pollution caused by DGs. It also helps in optimizing the use of RERs and ESSs along with the implementation of demand response programs (DRPs). To minimize cost and pollution in the microgrid simultaneously, the multi-objective optimization is used. The problem is a non-convex and nonlinear optimization problem, which needs to be linearized. A linearization method is presented to transform the nonlinear model to a linear one. The problem can be solved by the mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulation. During peak hours, the amount of spinning reserve and consequently the reliability of the system decreases. In the following, using time-based and incentive-based DRP, the amount of load consumption in the peak hours decreases with the help of load shifting, or peak shaving incentives. This will increase spinning reserve and reduce the loss in peak hours, which results in reliability increase.