Open Access

ARTICLE

Agent-Based Distributed Economic Dispatch for Multi-Microgrid Networks

Xiaowen Liang¹, Xiaomin Sun¹, Zilun Kuang¹, Hongyao Wu¹, Chunfang Liu², Zhidan Wu², Weixin Zhao², Xiaojing Wang^3,*
1 Zhaoqing Power Supply Bureau of Guangdong Power Grid Co., Zhaoqing, China
2 Foshan Electric Power Design Institute Co., Ltd., Foshan, China
3 College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
* Corresponding Author: Xiaojing Wang. Email:
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: AI for Next Generation Flexible, Reliable, Resilient and Sustainable Energy Systems)

Energy Engineering https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2026.080116

Received 03 February 2026; Accepted 03 April 2026; Published online 25 May 2026

Abstract

For the economic dispatch problem of distributed microgrid clusters, traditional centralized methods heavily rely on continuous and reliable remote communication. However, in practical systems, communication links may face interruption risks due to natural disasters or human factors, leading to data loss and power imbalance. To enhance system robustness, this paper proposes an agent-based decentralized economic dispatch mechanism. This mechanism employs autonomous agents deployed in each sub-region to locally aggregate distributed energy resources and achieves collaborative optimization through peer-to-peer communication. A dual-layer consensus algorithm is adopted to coordinate power allocation, local agents use the method of proportional distribution to approach the optimal solution, avoiding a large amount of data interaction, and a real-time communication detection module is integrated to dynamically adjust consensus parameters in the event of data loss, thereby maintaining optimization performance even under prolonged communication interruptions. Simulation tests based on a modified IEEE 39-bus system demonstrate that, in scenarios with communication impairments, the proposed mechanism can effectively maintain system voltage and frequency stability while minimizing generation costs. Compared with centralized dispatch approaches, the proposed method reduces dependence on communication infrastructure and provides a more resilient scheduling solution for microgrid clusters susceptible to communication failures.

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Keywords

Microgrid group; agent-based optimization; decentralized dispatch; communication outage

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