Enabling resilient distributed power sharing in networked microgrids through software defined networking

Networked Microgrids (NMGs) offer a new, more resilient alternative to traditional individual Microgrids (MGs). Even though networking existing microgrids presents clear advantages, the scalable and resilient communication and control infrastructure necessary for supporting this innovation does not yet exist. This paper addresses this challenge by developing a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) enabled architecture that can achieve fast power support among microgrids, transforming isolated local microgrids into integrated NMGs capable of achieving the desired resiliency, elasticity and efficiency. Equipped with a novel event-triggered communication scheme, the SDN-based architecture enables distributed power sharing among microgrids in both the transient period and the steady state, a capability that is unattainable using existing technologies. Extensive experiments on a cyber-physical Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) NMGs testbed have validated the effectiveness and efficiency of the SDN-enabled distributed power sharing method.