Conceptual Design of Multi-Microgrid Structure in Active Distribution Networks

One of the major issues in the planning stage for distribution networks is the optimal design of microgrids (MGs). One of the important goals in the design of MGs is supplying the load with the highest reliability and the lowest cost. Construction of MGs in the distribution systems may have many benefits such as local control strategy in order to minimize the interaction between different MGs, prevent the fault propagation and finally, increase the reliability of the system for consumers and distribution companies. Therefore, in this paper, with the aim of improving reliability and cost, three different approaches to constructing multi-microgrid (MMG) systems in the active distribution network (ADN) are proposed and compared. In this way, by determining the location and capacity of energy storage systems (ESSs) as well as clustering of ADN based on the mentioned objectives and proposed optimization algorithms, in different scenarios, using the Monte Carlo (MC) algorithm and the Forward-backward load flow, the objective function is calculated. Then, with the repetition and various suggestions made by the optimization algorithm, the optimal value of the objective function is obtained and the results of the designed approaches are compared. To simulate and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the 119-bus test distribution system is used.