A Multi-Agent Approach to Optimal Sizing of a Combined Heating and Power Microgrid

In this paper, a novel multi-agent based method is applied to the problem of optimal sizing of the components of an islanded combined heating and power residential microgrid such that the residential power and heat demands and hydrogen refilling demands of the fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are met. It is assumed that the proposed multi agent-based architecture consists of five different agents, namely generation agent (GA), electrical and thermal loads agent (LA), FCEV refilling station agent (SA), control agent (CA), and design agent (DA) which are organized in three levels. Design agent (DA) is the main agent of the proposed multi-agent system (MAS) that according to its interactions with CA and by minimizing the total costs of the system through particle swarm optimization (PSO), finds the optimal sizes of the system's components. This study is performed for a typical stand-alone combined heating and power microgrid.