Recent advances in electric grid technology have led to sustainable, modern, decentralized, bidirectional microgrids (MGs). The MGs can support energy storage, renewable energy sources (RESs), power electronics converters, and energy management systems. The MG system is less costly and creates less CO₂ than traditional power systems, which have significant operational and fuel expenses. In this paper, the proposed hybrid MG adopts renewable energies, including solar photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines (WT), biomass gasifiers (biogasifier), batteries’ storage energies, and a backup diesel generator. The energy management system of the adopted MG resources is intended to satisfy the load demand of Basra, a city in southern Iraq, considering the city’s real climate and demand data. For optimal sizing of the proposed MG components, a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm (Hybrid Grey Wolf with Cuckoo Search Optimization (GWCSO)) is applied. The simulation results are compared with those achieved using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithms (GA), Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO), Cuckoo Search Optimization (CSO), and Antlion Optimization (ALO) to evaluate the optimal sizing results with minimum costs. Since the adopted GWCSO has the lowest deviation, it is more robust than the other algorithms, and their optimal number of component units, annual cost, and Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) are superior to the other ones. According to the optimal annual analysis, LCOE is 0.1192 and the overall system will cost about USD 2.6918 billion.

The Energy Internet paradigm is the evolution of the Internet of Things concept in the power system. Microgrids (MGs), as the essential element in an Energy Internet, are expected to be controlled in a corporative and flexible manner. This paper proposes a novel decentralized robust control strategy for multi-agent systems (MASs) governed MGs in future Energy Internet. The proposed controller is based on a consensus algorithm applied with the connected distributed generators (DGs) in the MGs in the energy internet paradigm. The proposed controller’s objectives are the frequency/voltage regulation and proportional reactive/active power-sharing for the hybrid DGs connected MGs. A proposed two-level communication system is implemented to explain the data exchange between the MG system and the cloud server. The local communication level utilizes the transmission control protocol (TCP)/ internet protocol (IP) and the message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) is used as the protocol for the global communication level. The proposed control strategy has been verified using a hypothetical hybrid DGs connected MG such as photovoltaic or wind turbines in MATLAB Simulink environment. Several scenarios based on the system load types are implemented using residential buildings and small commercial outlets. The simulation results have verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the introduced strategy for the MGs’ various operating conditions.

This paper presents a novel scheduling scheme for the real-time home energy management systems based on Internet of Energy (IoE). The scheme is a multi-agent method that considers two chief purposes including user satisfaction and energy consumption cost. The scheme is designed under environment of microgrid. The user impact in terms of energy cost savings is generally significant in terms of system efficiency. That is why domestic users are involved in the management of domestic appliances. The optimization algorithms are based on an improved version of the rainfall algorithm and the salp swarm algorithm. In this paper, the Time of Use (ToU) model is proposed to define the rates for shoulder-peak and on-peak hours. A two-level communication system connects the microgrid system, implemented in MATLAB, to the cloud server. The local communication level utilizes IP/TCP and MQTT and is used as a protocol for the global communication level. The scheduling controller proposed in this study succeeded the energy saving of 25.3% by using the salp swarm algorithm and saving of 31.335% by using the rainfall algorithm.

The electrical demand and generation in power systems is currently the biggest source of uncertainty for an electricity provider. For a dependable and financially advantageous electricity system, demand response (DR) success as a result of household appliance energy management has attracted significant attention. Due to fluctuating electricity rates and usage trends, determining the best schedule for apartment appliances can be difficult. As a result of this context, the Improved Cockroach Swarm Optimization Algorithm (ICSOA) is combined with the Innovative Apartments Appliance Scheduling (IAAS) framework. Using the proposed technique, the cost of electricity reduction, user comfort maximization, and peak-to-average ratio reduction are analyzed for apartment appliances. The proposed framework is evaluated by comparing it with BFOA and W/O scheduling cases. In comparison to the W/O scheduling case, the BFOA method lowered energy costs by 17.75%, but the ICSA approach reduced energy cost by 46.085%. According to the results, the created ICSA algorithm performed better than the BFOA and W/O scheduling situations in terms of the stated objectives and was advantageous to both utilities and consumers.

The increasing integration of Renewable Energy Resources (RERs) in distribution networks forms the Networked Renewable Energy Resources (NRERs). The cooperative Peer-to-Peer (P2P) control architecture is able to fully exploit the resilience and flexibility of NRERs. This study proposes a multi-agent system to achieve P2P control of NRERs based Internet of Things (IoT). The control system is fully distributed and contains two control layers operated in the agent of each RER. For primary control, a droop control is adopted by each RER-agent for localized power sharing. For secondary control, a distributed diffusion algorithm is proposed for arbitrary power sharing among RERs. The proposed levels communication system is implemented to explain the data exchange between the distribution network system and the cloud server. The local communication level utilizes the Internet Protocol (IP)/Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is used as the protocol for the global communication level. The effectiveness of the proposed system is validated by numerical simulation with the modified IEEE 9 node test feeder. The controller proposed in this paper achieved savings of 20.65% for the system, 25.99% for photovoltaic, 35.52 for diesel generator, 24.59 for batteries, and 52.34% for power loss.

In residential energy management (REM), Time of Use (ToU) of devices scheduling based on user-defined preferences is an essential task performed by the home energy management controller. This paper devised a robust REM technique capable of monitoring and controlling residential loads within a smart home. In this paper, a new distributed multi-agent framework based on the cloud layer computing architecture is developed for real-time microgrid economic dispatch and monitoring. In this paper the grey wolf optimizer (GWO), artificial bee colony (ABC) optimization algorithm-based Time of Use (ToU) pricing model is proposed to define the rates for shoulder-peak and on-peak hours. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed the grey wolf optimizer (GWO), artificial bee colony (ABC) optimization algorithm based ToU pricing scheme. A Raspberry Pi3 based model of a well-known test grid topology is modified to support real-time communication with open-source IoE platform Node-Red used for cloud computing. Two levels communication system connects microgrid system, implemented in Raspberry Pi3, to cloud server. The local communication level utilizes IP/TCP and MQTT is used as a protocol for global communication level. The results demonstrate and validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, as well as the capability to track the changes of load with the interactions in real-time and the fast convergence rate.