Decentralized restoration scheme for distribution system with networked microgrids

Recent increases in the frequency of natural disasters and cyberattacks underscore the significance of enhancing outage management and service restoration in distribution networks. Traditionally, the distribution system operator (DSO) is responsible for service restoration, including locating damaged components, reconfiguring the network, and scheduling distributed generators (DG). However, the traditional single entity in the distribution network is being replaced by several individual entities with the growth of self-governed microgrids (MG), including the DSO and microgrid operators (MGO). Due to privacy concerns, these entities will schedule their resources in pursuit of their individual objectives, while still being physically connected. In this paper, a decentralized method is developed to model the independent service restoration of the DSO and MGOs while describing the interaction between them. Decision authority is given to each entity to autonomously schedule and operate the generation and load demand. Each entity solves its own optimization problem to maximize its own served loads based on the resources it possesses and the information it shares. The proposed algorithm uses an iteration procedure to negotiate among different entities and achieve consensus. A test case of an IEEE 33-node test system with multiple networked MGs is studied to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed decentralized restoration scheme. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).