Optimal distributed energy scheduling for port microgrid system considering the coupling of renewable energy and demand

The increased uptake of distributed renewable energy in port areas is facilitating the electrification and net zero transition of marine ports. Effective operation that considers unique characteristics of the port is critical to minimize the operating cost in the port microgrid (PMG). In this paper, we propose a joint scheduling method that considers the impact of tidal patterns on the period and intensity of port operations. The method takes advantage of the strong correlations between renewable energy (solar, wind and tidal) and multi-class load to support the PMG operator in determining the most cost-effective scheduling of energy supply and flexible loads during port activities. Additionally, the traditional centralized operation is vulnerable to local failures, and distributed operation for hundreds of energy units will result in significant computational burden, neither of which is suitable for the PMG operation. Our work decouples the PMG system based on the port functions and thus decomposes the PMG operation into a few subproblems. Then, we hierarchically solve the primal and dual problems by a distributed algorithm. Simulation results illustrate the benefits of tidal energy in the renewable generation mix. Furthermore, the proposed method achieves cost reductions of 12.4% and 21.7% under two different tidal patterns.