Load balancing in a microgrid with uncertain renewable resources and loads

The growing penetration of renewable energy resources poses a high degree of uncertainty in the electric grid's behavior due to the intermittent nature of such resources. Handling the uncertainty becomes even more challenging when it is extended to the loads as well. The modern grid intends to address such issues using a two-way communication method between the utilities and consumers. As an attempt for demand response and dynamic pricing, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is being deployed in distribution systems to further support consumer participation. In this structure, household appliances can be scheduled to respond to the demand and price signals for multiple purposes such as cost minimization and peak shaving. In this paper, we propose a novel scheduling strategy for smooth load balancing in a grid framework with uncertain power generation and loads considering the comfort of consumers with respect to all household activities. The study focuses on the following aspects: i) efficient use of available energy ii) dynamic load balancing, and iii) energy cost minimization for consumers. This approach uses the concept of load queuing and scheduling in order to provide cost efficient energy to time varying loads. Hence, the design is more consumer friendly while keeping the environment and stability of the grid into consideration. Also, to maintain consumer satisfaction, we introduce a decision-making process (for cost and priority) in the queue so that high priority loads are not queued for a considerable amount of time. Simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm.