Intelligent Deep-Q-Network-Based Energy Management for an Isolated Microgrid

The development of hybrid renewable energy systems (HRESs) can be the most feasible solution for a stable, environment-friendly, and cost-effective power generation, especially in rural and island territories. In this studied HRES, solar and wind energy are used as the major resources. Moreover, the electrolyzed hydrogen is utilized to store energy for the operation of a fuel cell. In case of insufficiency, battery and fuel cell are storage systems that supply energy, while a diesel generator adds a backup system to meet the load demand under bad weather conditions. An isolated HRES energy management system (EMS) based on a Deep Q Network (DQN) is introduced to ensure the reliable and efficient operation of the system. A DQN can deal with the problem of continuous state spaces and manage the dynamic behavior of hybrid systems without exact mathematical models. Following the power consumption data from Basco island of the Philippines, HOMER software is used to calculate the capacity of each component in the proposed power plant. In MATLAB/Simulink, the plant and its DQN-based EMS are simulated. Under different load profile scenarios, the proposed method is compared to the convectional dispatch (CD) control for a validation. Based on the outstanding performances with fewer fuel consumption, DQN is a very powerful and potential method for energy management.