Implementation of energy management and demand side management of a solar microgrid using a hybrid platform

This paper presents the implementation of the advanced distributed energy management and demand side management of a solar microgrid by a multiagent system (MAS) coordination approach. The proposed approach is built upon a hybrid platform in which a solar microgrid, modelled in MATLAB/Simulink, is controlled by a MAS implemented in Java Agent Development Framework (JADE), bringing the MAS closer to the real-time application. Novel control strategies are designed to implement all the smart grid features in the microgrid. The Simulink model is controlled by strategic action of agents in JADE, a multithreaded computing platform, through a middleware, multiagent control using Simulink with JADE extension (MACSimJX). Environment values are fed to JADE through Simulink and the decisions are given back to the Simulink model for validation and also for real-time deployment. JADE leverages the advantages of the MAS and autonomously manages all the environmental dynamics and challenges introduced by the penetration of intermittent renewable energy resources in a short time, improving the stability, reliability, and fault tolerance of the solar microgrid.