Recent Advances in Control and Optimization in Microgrids

Dear Colleagues,

Many countries have promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the net zero target. To achieve this, the usage of renewable energy resources needs to be increased. For attaining the widespread usage and adoption of renewable energy resources, all countries need to build more and more microgrids. Microgrids are self-controllable entities that consist of a combination of several renewable energy sources, battery systems, and power electronic devices, all integrated together in an efficient and reliable manner. Controlling and optimizing the resources in a microgrid form the two major objectives to bring about a cleaner and greener world. A microgrid consists of several converters such as rectifiers, inverters, and choppers. These converters are used to interface the renewable energy resources, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, storage battery systems, and wind turbine generator systems, with different types of AC and DC loads. One of the major objectives is to control these converters, to regulate their output voltage and frequency, and to maintain the satisfactory operation of the different loads in a microgrid. The other vital objective is to optimize the microgrid performance by efficient energy management, operating cost reduction, emission reduction, profit maximization, etc. Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to cover these two objectives in a microgrid—converter control and system-level optimization. Areas to be covered in this Special Issue may include recent and novel research trends related, but not limited, to the following objectives:

• Design and development of AC, DC, and hybrid microgrids and multi-microgrids.
• Interconnection strategies for distributed energy resources (DERs).
• Advanced control strategies (e.g., model predictive control, AI-driven approaches).
• Optimization of energy management systems to enhance efficiency and reliability.
• Challenges and solutions for integrating solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources.
• Management of intermittency and energy storage systems.
• Role of batteries, supercapacitors, and other storage technologies.
• Economic and environmental impacts of storage in microgrid setups.
• Transition mechanisms and control during grid-connected to islanded mode.
• Operational strategies for stand-alone microgrids in remote or disaster-prone areas.
• Implementation of microgrids in urban, rural, and industrial settings.
• Lessons learned from real-world deployments.

Dr. Thomas John
Dr. Umar Khan
Guest Editors

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