Multi-Agent System-Based Real-Time Implementation of Advanced Energy Management in Hybrid Microgrids

The growing integration of solar, wind and battery energy storage (BES) of the microgrids (MGs) has increased the necessity of real-time energy management, especially in the multi-microgrid (multi-MG) setting, where the generation and the load change stochastically. This paper presents a Java Agent DEvelopment (JADE)-based Multi-Agent System (MAS) for real-time energy management of a low-voltage hybrid multi-MG system incorporating solar photovoltaic (PV), wind generation, and battery energy storage (BES). The proposed framework’s novelty lies in its physical campus-scale hardware deployment—validated across four operating scenarios (single MG off-grid, single MG on-grid, dual MG off-grid, and dual MG on-grid)—combined with autonomous inter-MG power sharing, which distinguishes it from existing simulation-only MAS-based microgrid studies. The suggested framework facilitates decentralized communication between interconnected MGs and the utility AC grid to facilitate the proper management of power flow, its exchange, and the reliability of the system. The intelligent agents are used to coordinate solar, wind, BES, and load changes in order to adjust to changing demand conditions. The system is physically implemented on a campus rooftop with two 1 kW solar PV arrays and two 1.5 kW wind turbine generators, each paired with a 24 V, 150 Ah battery bank, operating on a 24 V DC bus. Results across 24 h real operational profiles demonstrate effective power balance maintenance, renewable energy maximization, and constraint-compliant battery operation (SOC is bounded within 20–90%). A direct comparison with a conventional centralized JavaScript-based EMS confirms equivalent dispatch accuracy while demonstrating superior scalability, fault tolerance, and modularity of the proposed JADE MAS architecture.