Emergency Load Shedding Strategy for Microgrids Based on Dueling Deep Q-Learning

The rapid drop of frequency under the disturbance is a major threat to the safe and stable operation of a microgrid (MG) system. Emergency load shedding is the main measure to prevent continuous frequency drop and power outage. The existing load shedding strategies have poor adaptability to deal with the problem of MG load shedding under different disturbance situations, and it is difficult to ensure the safe and stable operation of an MG in different operating environments. To address this problem, this paper proposes a data-driven load shedding strategy. First, considering the importance of the load and the frequency recovery time of the system, a load shedding contribution indicator is designed that takes into account the load frequency adjustment effect and the load shedding priority. This contribution indicator is introduced as a load shedding criterion into the reward value function of dueling deep Q learning. Second, considering the suddenness and uncertainty of emergency load shedding, a MG emergency load shedding strategy (ELSS) based on dueling deep Q-learning is proposed. On this basis, the dueling deep Q learning algorithm is used to obtain the load shedding decision with the maximum cumulative reward. Finally, taking the MG load shedding cases in two different scenarios as examples, a simulation study is carried out on a modified IEEE-25 bus MG. The simulation results show that, compared with the model-driven implicit enumeration strategy (IES), the proposed ELSS has superiority in maintaining stable power supply for important loads and reducing load shedding decision-making time and frequency fluctuations.

Automated summary

This paper proposes a data-driven load shedding strategy for microgrids, which uses a contribution indicator and deep Q learning algorithm to make intelligent decisions for emergency load shedding under different scenarios. Simulation results show that the strategy improves the stability of power supply for important loads, reduces load shedding decision-making time, and minimizes frequency fluctuations.