Fair MARL-Based Control of Multiple Batteries in Active Distribution Grids

Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) will play a critical role in tackling uncertainty issues in power grids with renewables. In this paper, we address the problem of controlling multiple batteries in an active distribution grid with the goal of following a dispatch plan at its point of common coupling (PCC) with the main grid in a distributed way. We account for future constraints on the batteries state-of-energy values that are binding among batteries targeting a cost efficient battery and grid operation. In such settings, unfairness in battery usage is possible even under optimal solutions that may have a negative impact on batteries participation in grid’s flexibility. That is why we integrate fairness among batteries in terms of their usage in our problem formulation, while considering different fairness definitions and their introduced complexities in the problem solution. The results show that by carefully designing the fairness objective, optimality with respect to the grid objectives will not be affected while achieving a fair cooperation of batteries towards grid goals even under partial information availability.