A Cloud-Based Multiagent System Platform for Residential Microgrids Towards Smart Grid Community

This paper proposes a cloud-based multiagent system (MAS) platform for a residential microgrid (RMG) towards smart grid community. The proposed MAS consists of smart home agents (SHAs) and a microgrid agent (MA), aiming to alleviate the peak load of the RMG and to minimize the electricity costs of smart homes. These are achieved by using agent utility functions and the best operating time algorithm (BOT) in the MAS. Moreover, Internet-of- Things (IoT) devices are used for aggregating home power data and communicating between smart home and the multiagent system in cloud computing server via internet. The proposed MAS and smart home models are implemented in Google cloud and Raspberry pi boards, respectively and validated by cyber-physical simulation testbed for a RMG with five smart homes.