Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 301: A Multi-Market-Driven Approach to Energy Scheduling of Smart Microgrids in Distribution Networks (Sustainability)

In order to coordinate the economic desire of microgrid (MG) owners and the stability operation requirement of the distribution system operator (DSO), a multi-market participation framework is proposed to stimulate the energy transaction potential of MGs through distributed and centralized ways. Firstly, an MG equipped with storage can contribute to the stability improvement at special nodes of the distribution grid where the uncertain factors (such as intermittent renewable sources and electric vehicles) exist. The DSO is thus interested in encouraging specified MGs to provide voltage stability services by creating a distribution grid service market (DGSM), where the dynamic production-price auction is used to capture the competition of the distributed MGs. Moreover, an aggregator, serving as a broker and controller for MGs, is considered to participate in the day-ahead wholesale market. A Stackelberg game is modeled accordingly to solve the price and quantity package allocation between aggregator and MGs. Finally, the modified IEEE-33 bus distribution test system is used to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed multi-market mechanism. The results under this framework improve both MGs and utility.