Distributed Economic Dispatch Strategies in Smart Grids
Summary
Economic dispatch in smart grids addresses the real‐time allocation of generation resources to meet variable demand at minimum cost. Traditional centralised schemes rely on a single coordinator collecting full network data, which can be hampered by communication bottlenecks, scalability limits and vulnerability to single‐point failures. Distributed strategies decentralise decision‐making, enabling each generator or agent to optimise its output using local measurements and peer‐to‐peer communication. Key techniques include consensus algorithms, which iteratively align incremental costs or power mismatches across agents, and diffusion strategies that enhance convergence speed under sparse network topologies. These methods accommodate high penetrations of renewables, facilitate plug‐and‐play integration of distributed energy resources, and improve robustness against delays or link failures. As a result, distributed economic dispatch has emerged as a vital enabler for resilient, scalable and cost‐effective operation of future low‐carbon power systems.
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Distributed Economic Dispatch Strategies in Smart Grids publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in distributed economic dispatch strategies in smart grids across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Economic dispatch: The process of determining the optimal output of multiple generation units to meet load demand at minimum total cost.
Consensus algorithm: A distributed iterative protocol by which agents reach agreement on a common variable, such as incremental cost or power mismatch.
Diffusion strategy: A distributed optimisation method that incorporates stochastic gradient‐like updates for faster convergence under sparse or dynamic networks.
Droop control: A decentralised control scheme in microgrids where output voltage or frequency is adjusted according to active power variation, enabling proportional load sharing.
Microgrid: A small‐scale power network comprising distributed generation, storage and loads, capable of operating autonomously or connected to the main grid.
References
- Diffusion Strategy-Based Distributed Operation of Microgrids Using Multiagent System. Energies (2017).
- Multi-Agent Based Fully Distributed Economic Dispatch in Microgrid Using Exact Diffusion Strategy. IEEE Access (2019).
- Distributed Optimal Energy Management for Microgrids in the Presence of Time-Varying Communication Delays. IEEE Access (2019).
- Distributed Economic Power Dispatch and Bus Voltage Control for Droop-Controlled DC Microgrids. Energies (2019).
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