Swarm Intelligence for Frequency Management in Smart Grids

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Evora, Jose¹ | Hernandez, Jose Juan¹ | Hernandez, Mario¹ | Dzemyda, Gintautas² | Kurasova, Olga^{2; *} | Kremers, Enrique³

Affiliations: [1] Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Edificio Central del Parque Científico y Tecnológico, Campus Universitario de Tafira, 35017 Las Palmas de GC, Spain | [2] Institute of Informatics and Mathematics, Vilnius University, Akademijos 4, LT-08663 Vilnius, Lithuania | [3] EIFER European Institute for Energy Research (KIT & EDF), Emmy Noether Str. 11, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany, e-mail: jose.evora@siani.es, jose.evora@siani.es, mhernandez@siani.es, gintautas.dzemyda@mii.vu.lt, olga.kurasova@mii.vu.lt, enrique.enrique.kremers@eifer.org

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author.

Abstract: A secure and high-quality operation of power grids requires frequency to be managed to keep it stable around a reference value. The deviation of the frequency from this reference value is caused by the imbalance between the active power produced and consumed. In the Smart Grid paradigm, the balance can be achieved by adjusting the demand to the production constraints, instead of the other way round. In this paper, an swarm intelligence-based approach for frequency management is proposed. It is grounded on the idea that a swarm is composed of decentralised individual agents (particles) and that each of them interacts with other ones via a shared environment. Three swarm intelligence-based policies ensure a decentralised frequency management in the smart power grid, where agents of swarm are making decisions and acting on the demand side. Policies differ in behaviour function of agents. Finally, these policies are evaluated and compared using indicators that point out their advantages.

Keywords: swarm intelligence, multi-agent system, behaviour function, energy system, demand side management, smart grid, resilience, frequency management

Journal: Informatica, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 419-434, 2015