A two-step procedure for the energy management in smart microgrids accounting for economical and power quality issues

The present contribution proposes an adaptive two-step Energy Management System (EMS) for the optimal operation of the Savona Campus Smart Polygeneration Microgrid (SPM). The first step aims at performing an economical optimization, as it provides the active power set-point for the programmable units that minimizes the overall production cost. The second step is related to power quality issues (power factor correction or voltage support), as it produces in output the reactive power reference signal for all the devices under converter. Moreover, due to the presence of uncertainties in the electric and thermal load request and in the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) power production, an update forecasting logic is proposed that, applied at each time step of the optimization process, refines the forecast accuracy. The experimental validation performed on the SPM shows the efficacy of the proposed EMS in satisfying both the economic and the power quality objectives.