Multi-level energy management and optimal control of a residential DC microgrid

Extensive exploitation of renewable energies together with the increased role of low-voltage DC (LVDC) micro-sources in the generation mix of the future electricity networks, have become the driving force behind the DC microgrid applications. In this paper, an optimal dispatch model of a residential DC microgrid (R-DCMG) with different distributed generations (DGs) and loads is proposed and implemented as an optimal hierarchical control strategy. A system-level optimizer is designed to calculate the optimal operating points of the controllable energy sources (CESs) when needed, while lower-level controllers are utilized to enforce the CESs to follow optimal set-points.