A Bi-level Optimization-based Architecture for the Scheduling and Real-Time Control of Microgrids With Hydrogen Production System

This paper proposes a novel bi-level architecture for the scheduling and real-time control of a microgrid with a hydrogen production system. It consists of an economic optimization that performs the operational management of the microgrid at the higher level. At the lower level, a real-time controller, based on a Reference Governor (RG), is designed to control the stack's temperature of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer under the flexible operation imposed by the economic optimization. When switching from one power level to another, the stack's temperature is having a sudden change that might lead to a violation of the operating limits set by the manufacturer. With the RG-based controller added at the lower level, the operating limits of the temperature are respected, and better performances of the system are guaranteed. The effectiveness of the proposed bi-level architecture has been proved through a real case study, in which the sudden changes in the temperatures have significantly been reduced by up to 91% with respect to the optimal operational management of the overall microgrid.