Key performance indicator-based energy management strategies for microgrid operation

Today, planning and operation of microgrid (MG) systems have become extremely complicated to analyze due to their structural changes. With rapid advancements in intelligent systems, MGs have gained more research attention. The inclusion of distributed energy sources with renewable energy, information dispersion among peers, and storage systems can lead to long-term difficulties in defining suitable models for decision-making. Consequently, distribution energy systems are vulnerable to failures, natural causes, or manmade threats. For instance, blackouts are a major threat in distribution system failures resulting changes to many lives. Thus MGs were considered to solve the problems caused by distribution systems and extensively used for handling reduced distributed system dependency on the main grid. However, MGs can be operated at low levels, such as in government buildings, hospitals, hotels, and airports to name a few. Therefore the development of advanced models is in demand to analyze the effects of MG in the overall grid system. To evaluate MGs, key performance indicators (KPI) are necessary to evaluate and optimize the MG configurations. Besides, these KPIs include economic indicators, reliability indicators, environmental indicators, power quality indicators, and other related quality factors. As a result, this chapter focuses on the available solutions that necessitate quantitative evaluation by using representative KPIs for projects linked to microgrid development in isolated energy systems, where key stakeholders will be able to compare existing solutions. The evaluation method stresses the impact of operation methods and the values of the related control parameters on storage system sizing.