Optimal Operational Scheduling of Reconfigurable Microgrids in Presence of Renewable Energy Sources

Passive distribution networks are being converted into active ones by incorporating distributed means of energy generation, consumption, and storage, and the formation of so-called microgrids (MGs). As the next generation of MGs, reconfigurable microgrids (RMGs) are still in early phase studies, and require further research. RMGs facilitate the integration of distributed generators (DGs) into distribution systems and enable a reconfigurable network topology by the help of remote-controlled switches (RCSs). This paper proposes a day-ahead operational scheduling framework for RMGs by simultaneously making an optimal reconfiguration plan and dispatching controllable distributed generation units (DGUs) considering power loss minimization as an objective. A hybrid approach combining conventional particle swarm optimization (PSO) and selective PSO (SPSO) methods (PSO&SPSO) is suggested for solving this combinatorial, non-linear, and NP-hard complex optimization problem. PSO-based methods are primarily considered here for our optimization problem, since they are efficient for power system optimization problems, easy to code, have a faster convergence rate, and have a substructure that is suitable for parallel calculation rather than other optimization methods. In order to evaluate the suggested method’s performance, it is applied to an IEEE 33-bus radial distribution system that is considered as an RMG. One-hour resolution of the simultaneous network reconfiguration (NR) and the optimal dispatch (OD) of distributed DGs are carried out prior to this main study in order to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach by comparing relevant recent studies in the literature.