Model Predictive Control for Grid-ready Microgrids in developing countries

Abstract

In an under-resourced environment, the optimal energy management of the off-grid system under the stochastic generation and load is an open technology challenge. To design the least-cost system whilst meeting the reliability requirement, this work develops a predictive control framework based on a real-world microgrid pilot design11This work is supported in part by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under Grant EP/R030111/1 Robust Extra Low Cost Nano-grids (RELCON). Considering users' preferences and various weather conditions, it employs model predictive control (MPC) and demonstrates superior performance in reliability improvement compared with the day-ahead case. Given the reliability requirements ranging from 70% to 90%, the MPC can achieve the 5.23% improvement with the same system cost, and close to the performance under the perfect foresight.