Modeling and control of prosumer-based microgrids: a Petri net approach*

The transformation towards renewable energy sources is a global phenomenon. While industrialized regions are transitioning from large fossil-fueled power plants towards increasingly decentralized renewable energy sources, so far unelectrified regions in resource-constrained communities are replacing kerosene lamps and candles by household-based stand-alone solar home systems (SHSs). The latter can form a bottom-up power grid when interconnected. Both scenarios may lead to prosumer-based microgrids. Each grid node is a prosumer, hence it can sell and buy energy to and from the other prosumers. In this paper, we derive a Petri net model for the interconnection of an arbitrary number of prosumers forming a prosumer-based microgrid. The proposed control strategy addresses fair and efficient energy sharing. These control objectives are formalized as a local and a global control problem, respectively. A systematic method to implement them via supervisory control in a least restrictive way is presented, thereby enforcing fair and efficient microgrid operation.