Planning, Operation and Management of Grid-Connected and Islanded Microgrids
A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A1: Smart Grids and Microgrids".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 1160
Special Issue Editor
Interests: renewable energy sources (RESs); renewable energy storage systems; hydrogen production and storage technologies; technologies for the use of hydrogen for the production of electricity; control and automation of hybrid power supply systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid deployment of photovoltaic generation, battery energy storage systems and distributed energy resources is transforming the structure and operation of modern power systems. Microgrids—both grid-connected and fully islanded—have emerged as a key paradigm for integrating high shares of renewable energy, enhancing reliability, and enabling local energy autonomy. Beyond individual installations, increasing attention is being devoted to coordinated multi-microgrid systems and energy communities, where multiple microgrids interact through shared electrical infrastructures.
A central challenge in these systems is the effective coordination of storage, renewable generation and backup resources under technical, economic and reliability constraints. In this context, the state of energy (SoE) of battery systems has gained importance as a physically meaningful indicator that links short-term operational decisions with long-term planning objectives. Unlike market-based, optimization-heavy or agent-based approaches, SoE-driven frameworks enable transparent, rule-based coordination that is applicable to both grid-connected and islanded microgrids, as well as to clusters of multiple interacting systems.
This Special Issue aims to collect high-quality research contributions that advance SoE-based planning, control and coordination frameworks for microgrids and multi-microgrid systems operating in grid-connected, weakly supported, or fully islanded conditions. Emphasis is placed on approaches that explicitly link operational logic to reliability, techno-economic performance and system design, using interpretable models, real-world data and reproducible methodologies.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- State-of-energy-based planning and operation of grid-connected and islanded microgrids;
- Coordination and energy sharing in multi-microgrid and cluster configurations;
- Reliability-oriented microgrid sizing and adequacy assessment (e.g., LPSP-based methods);
- New performance indicators for microgrid planning and operation based on SoE or storage utilization;
- PV–battery–diesel and hybrid microgrid architectures under reliability constraints;
- Comparison of SoE-driven approaches with optimization-based, market-based or agent-based methods;
- Data-driven microgrid studies using real demand and renewable resource measurements;
- Extensions from two-microgrid systems to large-scale N-microgrid configurations;
- Planning–control interactions and the role of SoE in bridging long-term design and real-time operation.
The Special Issue welcomes original research articles, comprehensive reviews and case studies that contribute to a deeper understanding of how state-of-energy-centric methodologies can support robust, scalable and transparent microgrid and multi-microgrid solutions.
Dr. Costas Elmasides
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- state-of-energy-based control
- microgrid planning and operation
- battery storage coordination
- multi-microgrid coordination
- reliability-oriented design
- energy sharing mechanisms
- interpretable energy management
- planning–operation interactions
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