Search Results (338)

Driven by energy transition strategies, distributed resources are being extensively integrated into the distribution network (DN). However, sufficient coordination among these resources remains challenging due to their diverse ownership structures. To address this, a hybrid game-theoretic economic scheduling method for the distribution network based on grid–storage–load interaction is proposed. A two-layer game framework, “distribution network–shared energy storage–microgrid alliance (MGA)”, is established to enable coordinated utilization of flexible resources across the grid, storage, and load sides. The upper-layer distribution network determines time-of-use electricity prices to guide the energy strategies of storage and microgrid alliance. The lower-layer agents engage in a two-stage interaction: Stage 1, multiple microgrids (MGs) form an alliance to lease shared energy storage to smooth net-load profiles. The shared energy storage operator (SESO) then utilizes its surplus capacity to assist the distribution network in peak shaving, thereby maximizing its own revenue. Stage 2, the alliance facilitates mutual power support and implements demand response (DR), reducing its energy costs and assisting the system in peak shaving and valley filling. Case analysis demonstrates that, compared to baseline without coordination, the proposed method reduces the distribution network’s electricity procurement cost by 11.28% and lowers the system’s net load peak-to-valley difference rate by 56.53%. Full article

Air conditioning loads play a critical role in maintaining the supply–demand balance of building microgrids (BMGs), yet their distributed nature and volatile response may undermine secure and stable operation. This paper proposes a day-ahead and real-time aggregated control strategy for BMG air conditioning loads with user privacy protection. First, an approximate aggregation model is developed based on building heat transfer characteristics, and the aggregated response potential is evaluated by jointly considering user comfort and willingness. Second, without sharing fine-grained user information, a Building Microgrid Operator (BMO)–Load Aggregator (LA) day-ahead distributed-scheduling model is formulated and solved using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Finally, to address load fluctuations caused by heterogeneous initial indoor temperature distributions, a real-time control strategy based on State-Queueing (SQ) temperature-state pre-transfer is proposed. Case studies show that, compared with the baseline scheme, the proposed method reduces the system operating cost from CNY 50,694.58 to CNY 47,131.64, a 7% decrease, and decreases load shedding from 1466.35 kWh to 257.31 kWh, an 82% decrease. Meanwhile, the real-time control effectively suppresses power fluctuations in the early control stage, thereby improving both economic performance and response smoothness. Full article

The increasing penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) and rooftop photovoltaics (PV) is intensifying the variability and uncertainty of residential net demand, thereby challenging real-time operation in smart grids and microgrids. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate an accurate and operationally relevant short-term forecasting framework that jointly models household net demand and EV charging behaviour. To this end, a Residual-Normalised Multi-Task GRU (RN-MTGRU) architecture is proposed, enabling the simultaneous learning of shared temporal patterns across interdependent energy streams while maintaining robustness under highly non-stationary conditions. Using one-minute resolution measurements of household demand, PV generation, EV charging activity, and weather variables, the proposed model consistently outperforms benchmark forecasting approaches across 1–30 min horizons, with the largest performance gains observed during periods of rapid load variation. Beyond predictive accuracy, the relevance of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a demand response case study, where forecast-informed control leads to substantial reductions in daily peak demand on critical days and a measurable annual increase in PV self-consumption. These results highlight the practical significance of the RN-MTGRU as a scalable forecasting solution that enhances local flexibility, supports renewable integration, and strengthens real-time decision-making in residential smart grid environments. Full article

Modern data centers are becoming increasingly energy-intensive as AI workloads, hyperscale architectures, and high-power processors push power demand to unprecedented levels. This work examines the sources of rising energy consumption, including evolving IT load dynamics, variability, and the limitations of legacy AC-based power-delivery architectures. These challenges amplify the environmental impact of data centers and highlight their growing influence on global electricity systems. The paper analyzes why conventional grid-tied designs are insufficient for meeting future efficiency, flexibility, and sustainability requirements and surveys emerging solutions centered on DC microgrids, high-voltage DC distribution, and advanced wide-bandgap power electronics. The review further discusses the technical enablers that allow data centers to integrate renewable energy and energy storage more effectively, including simplified conversion chains, coordinated control hierarchies, and demand-aware workload management. Through documented strategies such as on-site renewable deployment, off-site procurement, hybrid energy systems, and flexible demand shaping, the study shows how data centers are increasingly positioned not only as major energy consumers but also as key catalysts for accelerating renewable-energy adoption. Overall, the findings illustrate how the evolving power architectures of large-scale data centers can drive innovation and growth across the renewable energy sector. Full article

High penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) in power systems introduces substantial source-load uncertainty and flexibility challenges, leading to misalignments between economic optimization and environmental sustainability. An edge-side electricity-carbon coordinated hybrid trading mechanism was proposed to enhance flexibility in microgrid clusters. A three-layer time-varying carbon emission factor (CEF) model is developed to quantify negative emissions as tradable Chinese Certified Emission Reductions (CCERs). An endogenous economic equilibrium point enables dynamic switching between Incentive-Based Demand Response during high-carbon periods and Price-Based Demand Response during low-carbon periods, based on marginal profit comparisons. A Wasserstein distance-based distributionally robust CVaR (WDR-CVaR) strategy constructs a data-driven ambiguity set to optimize decisions under worst-case distributional shifts in edge-side data. Simulations on a modified IEEE 33-bus system show that the mechanism increases the Multi-Energy Aggregator’s (MEA) expected profit by 12.3%, reduces carbon emissions by 17.6%, with WDR-CVaR demonstrating superior out-of-sample performance compared to sample average approximation methods. The approach internalizes environmental values through carbon-electricity coupling and edge intelligence, providing a resilient framework for low-carbon distribution network operations. Full article

The increasing deployment of hybrid renewable energy systems has introduced significant challenges in optimal energy dispatch and load balancing due to the intrinsic stochasticity and temporal variability of renewable sources, along with the multi-dimensional optimization requirements of simultaneously achieving economic efficiency, grid stability, and environmental sustainability. This paper presents GreenMind, a scalable Deep Reinforcement Learning framework designed to address these challenges through a hierarchical multi-agent architecture coupled with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks for predictive energy management. The framework employs specialized agents responsible for generation dispatch, storage management, load balancing, and grid interaction, achieving an average decision accuracy of 94.7% through coordinated decision-making enabled by hierarchical communication mechanisms. The integrated LSTM-based forecasting module delivers high predictive accuracy, achieving a 2.7% Mean Absolute Percentage Error for one-hour-ahead forecasting of solar generation, wind power, and load demand, enabling proactive rather than reactive control. A multi-objective reward formulation effectively balances economic, technical, and environmental objectives, resulting in 18.3% operational cost reduction, 23.7% improvement in energy efficiency, and 31.2% enhancement in load balancing accuracy compared to state-of-the-art baseline methods. Extensive validation using synthetic datasets representing diverse hybrid renewable energy configurations over long operational horizons confirms the practical viability of the framework, with 19.6% average cost reduction, 97.7% system availability, and 28.6% carbon emission reduction. The scalability analysis demonstrates near-linear computational growth, with performance degradation remaining below 9% for systems ranging from residential microgrids to utility-scale installations with 2000 controllable units. Overall, the results demonstrate that GreenMind provides a scalable, robust, and practically deployable solution for predictive energy dispatch and load balancing in hybrid renewable energy systems. Full article

To achieve low-carbon collaborative operation of active distribution networks (ADNs) and microgrid clusters, this paper proposes a signal-guided collaborative optimization method. Firstly, a spatiotemporal carbon intensity equilibrium model (STCIEM) is constructed, overcoming the limitations of centralized carbon emission flow models in terms of data privacy and equitable distribution, and enabling distributed and precise carbon emission measurement. Secondly, a dual-market mechanism for carbon and electricity is designed to support peer-to-peer (P2P) carbon quota trading between microgrids and ADN-backed clearing, enhancing market liquidity and flexibility. In terms of scheduling strategy optimization, the multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) algorithm is incorporated into the carbon-electricity cooperative game framework, enabling differentiated energy scheduling under constraints. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively coordinate the operation of energy storage, gas turbines, and demand response, reduce system carbon intensity, improve market fairness, and enhance overall economic performance and robustness. The study shows that this framework provides theoretical support and practical reference for future distributed energy consumption and carbon neutrality paths. Full article

To address the uncertainty in power grid scheduling caused by the output variability of distributed energy resources (DERs) in microgrids, as well as the limitations of stochastic optimization relying on accurate probability distributions and the overly conservative nature of robust optimization leading to insufficient economic performance, this paper proposes a disseminated robust optimization method for microgrid operation that considers flexible demand-side resources. First, to address the uncertainty in the forecasting of wind and solar power scenarios, this paper launches a two-stage distributionally robust optimization (DRO) model based on a Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence ambiguity set using a min–max–min framework. Then, the Column-and-Constraint Generation (C&CG) algorithm is employed to decouple the model for an iterative solution. Finally, simulation case studies are directed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The demand response-based optimization model projected in the paper effectively enhances the flexibility of the Microgrid. Compared to robust optimization, this model reduces the daily operating cost by 2.86%. Although the cost is slightly higher (4.88%) than that of stochastic optimization, it achieves a balance between economy and robustness by optimizing the expected value under the worst-case probability distribution. Full article

This paper presents a comprehensive framework for real-time energy management in microgrids integrating distributed renewable energy sources and demand response (DR) programs. To address the inherent uncertainties in key operational variables—such as load demand, wind speed, solar irradiance, and electricity market prices—this study employs a probabilistic modeling approach. A two-stage stochastic optimization method, combining mixed-integer linear programming and optimal power flow (OPF), is developed to minimize operational costs while ensuring efficient system operation. Real-time dynamic pricing mechanisms are incorporated to incentivize consumer load shifting and promote energy-efficient consumption patterns. Three microgrid scenarios are analyzed using one year of real historical data: (i) a grid-connected microgrid without DR, (ii) a grid-connected microgrid with 10% and 20% DR-based load shifting, and (iii) an islanded microgrid operating under incentive-based DR contracts. Results demonstrate that incorporating DR strategies significantly reduces both operating costs and reliance on grid imports, especially during peak demand periods. The islanded scenario, while autonomous, incurs higher costs and highlights the challenges of self-sufficiency under uncertainty. Overall, the proposed model illustrates how the integration of real-time pricing with stochastic optimization enhances the flexibility, resilience, and cost-effectiveness of smart microgrid operations, offering actionable insights for the development of future grid-interactive energy systems. Full article

Agricultural and pastoral parks in China possess abundant biomass resources, such as crop straw and livestock manure. However, insufficient distribution generation capacity and a lack of effective coordination strategies lead to low energy utilization efficiency and high carbon emissions. To address these issues, in this study, a coordinated microgrid optimization strategy is proposed based on multi-energy complementarity. A source–load multi-energy coupling model is established by analyzing the dynamic characteristics of biomass energy flow and incorporating a flexible load demand response mechanism. An optimization model aimed at minimizing operational costs is then developed to coordinate heterogeneous energy sources. Simulations under typical wind–solar–load scenarios demonstrate that the proposed strategy improves operational economy by 12.6% and reduces carbon emissions by 23.3% compared to conventional methods through optimized allocation of demand response resources. Full article

Given the uncertainty from renewable production, local loads and battery operating states in microgrid, it is vital to develop an efficient energy management scheme to improve system economics and enhance grid reliability. In this paper, we consider a renewable integrated microgrid scenario including an energy storage system (ESS), bidirectional energy flow from/to conventional power grid and ESS health estimation. We develop a novel demand response-based scheme for microgrid energy management with a long short-term memory (LSTM) network and reinforcement learning (RL), aiming to improve the system operating profit from energy-trading and reduce the battery health cost from energy-scheduling. Specifically, to overcome the uncertainty from future, we utilize LSTM to forecast the unknown demand and electricity price. To obtain the desired ESS control scheme, we apply RL to learn an optimal energy-scheduling strategy. To improve the critical performance of the RL paradigm, we propose a random greedy strategy to encourage exploration. Numerical results show that our proposed algorithm outperforms the baselines by improve the system operating profit by 8.27% and 17.31% while ensuring ESS operating safety. By integrating energy efficiency with sustainable energy management practices, our scheme contributes to long-term environmental and economic resilience. Full article

Voltage instability and power quality degradation represent critical barriers to the reliable operation of modern wind farm-based microgrids. As the share of distributed wind generation continues to grow, fluctuating wind speeds and variable reactive power demands increasingly challenge grid stability. This study proposes an adaptive decentralized framework integrating a Dynamic Distribution Static Compensator (DSTATCOM) with an Artificial Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS)-based control strategy to enhance dynamic voltage and frequency stability in wind farm microgrids. Unlike conventional centralized STATCOM configurations, the proposed system employs parallel wind turbine modules that can be selectively switched based on voltage feedback to maintain optimal grid conditions. Each turbine is connected to a capacitive circuit for real-time voltage monitoring, while the ANFIS controller adaptively adjusts compensation signals to ensure minimal voltage deviation and reduced harmonic distortion. The framework was modeled and validated in the MATLAB/Simulink R2023a environment using the Simscape Power Systems toolbox. Simulation results demonstrated superior transient response, voltage recovery, and power factor correction compared with traditional PI and fuzzy-based controllers, achieving a total harmonic distortion below 2.5% and settling times under 0.5 s. The findings confirm that the proposed decentralized DSTATCOM–ANFIS approach provides an effective, scalable, and cost-efficient solution for maintaining dynamic stability and high power quality in wind farm based microgrids. Full article

Multi-energy microgrids are emerging technologies to facilitate the integration of distributed energy resources and decarbonisation of various energy consumptions. To assist in the low-carbon and efficient operation of multi-energy microgrids, this paper proposes a multi-energy coordination method for an electricity-heat-gas microgrid which integrates technologies of carbon-gas coupling (CGC) and demand side response (DSR). The carbon capture system–power-to-gas unit and water electrolyser (WE) are jointly employed to capture carbon emissions from combined heat-and-power units for methane synthesis, enabling the CGC and reducing carbon emissions and reliance on external gas supply. Then, incentive-based DSR schemes are implemented for both electricity and heat loads, leveraging the demand-side flexibility to further enhance the use of renewable generation. The operation of CGC and DSR units is co-optimised to minimise the penalties related to renewable generation curtailments and carbon emissions subject to a set of constraints including demand-side comfort coefficients. Compared to a traditional microgrid with neither CGC nor DSR, the joint implementation of CGC and DSR is estimated to reduce the total operational cost and carbon emissions of microgrid by over 20% and 40%, respectively, and increase the use of renewable generation by about 19%, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed coordination method together with CGC and DSR technologies in reducing microgrid operating costs and carbon emissions while improving the share of renewables. Full article

Telecommunication Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) require a resilient and sustainable power supply to ensure uninterrupted operation, particularly during grid outages. Thus, this paper proposes an Adaptive Model Predictive Control (AMPC)-based Energy Management System (EMS) designed to optimize energy dispatch and demand response for a BTS powered by a renewable-based microgrid. The EMS operates under two distinct scenarios: (a) non-grid outages, where the objective is to minimize grid consumption, and (b) outage management, aiming to maximize BTS operational time during grid failures. The system incorporates a dynamic weighting mechanism in the objective function, which adjusts based on real-time power production, consumption, battery state of charge, grid availability, and load satisfaction. Additionally, a demand response strategy is implemented, allowing the BTS to adapt its power consumption according to energy availability. The proposed EMS is evaluated based on BTS loss of transmitted data under different renewable energy profiles. Under normal operation, the EMS is assessed regarding grid energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed AMPC-based EMS enhances BTS resilience. Full article

To further explore the potential of CO₂ emission reduction and optimize the cost of microgrids, a two-stage robust optimization configuration method for multi-energy microgrids is proposed, considering uncertainty, tiered carbon trading, and demand response. The model incorporates power-to-gas (P2G) and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies to enhance renewable energy utilization and reduce carbon emissions. A tiered carbon trading mechanism is introduced to penalize high emissions, while incentive-based demand response is employed to adjust load profiles and improve economic performance. The optimization model is formulated as a two-stage robust problem: the outer stage minimizes annual investment and maintenance costs, while the inner stage identifies the worst-case scenario under uncertainties. The model is solved using the Column-and-Constraint Generation (C&CG) algorithm and implemented in MATLAB R2022b with the Gourbi solver. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces carbon emissions by up to 31.9% and total costs by 3.28% compared to conventional configurations, while increasing the penetration of renewable energy. This study provides practical reference for the low-carbon and economic planning of microgrids with P2G and CCS integration. Full article