Optimizing electricity demand scheduling in microgrids using deep reinforcement learning for cost‐efficiency

Abstract

Abstract Renewable energy sources (RES) are increasingly being developed and used to address the energy crisis and protect the environment. However, the large‐scale integration of wind and solar energy into the power grid is still challenging and limits the adoption of these new energy sources. Microgrids (MGs) are small‐scale power generation and distribution systems that can effectively integrate renewable energy, electric loads, and energy storage systems (ESS). By using MGs, it is possible to consume renewable energy locally and reduce energy losses from long‐distance transmission. This paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)‐based energy management system (EMS) called DRL‐MG to process and schedule energy purchase requests from customers in real‐time. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to enhance the quality of service (QoS) for customers and reduce their electricity costs by proposing an approach that utilizes a Deep Q‐learning Network (DQN) model. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method outperforms commonly used real‐time scheduling methods significantly.

Keywords

• distributed algorithms
• distributed control
• electricity supply industry
• power control