Developing a stochastic approach for optimal scheduling of isolated microgrids

This paper investigates the optimal scheduling problem of available energies in a microgrid during islanding periods. Since in many occasions, the islanded duration of microgrids cannot be determined with certainty, the scheduling problem of these systems has been considered as a challengeable task in viewpoint of microgrids operators. In response to this issue, a stochastic model is developed for scheduling of a typical microgrid comprised of conventional and renewable distributed generators (DGs), energy storage systems (ESSs) as well as critical and flexible loads. The associated optimization model of this problem has been formulated as a linear programming (LP) problem. Objective function of this problem is to minimize the expected value of an isolated microgrid total operation cost, which includes the generation cost of local resources and the cost that should be paid to the curtailed loads. Various aspects of proposed model are studied through application to a test microgrid. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in enhancing the robustness of the obtained schedule against uncertainties related to islanding duration of the microgrid. It also demonstrates the benefits it will bring to both customers and distribution system operators when sufficient data are not available.