Electric Power Systems Research 152 (2017) 411–423 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Electric Power Systems Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr Multi-agent oriented solution for forecasting-based control strategy with load priority of microgrids in an island mode – Case study: Tunisian petroleum platform Mohamed Ghaieth Abidi a,b , Moncef Ben Smida c , Mohamed Khalgui a,b,∗ , Zhiwu Li d,e,∗∗ , Naiqi Wu d a School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jinan University (Zhuhai Campus), Zhuhai 519070, China b LISI Lab, INSAT Institute, University of Carthage, Tunisia c LSA Lab, Tunisia Polytechnic School, University of Carthage, Tunisia d Institute of Systems Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau e School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 10 August 2016 Received in revised form 9 July 2017 Accepted 10 July 2017 Keywords: Microgrid Forecasting of meteorological conditions Load shedding Multi-agent system FPGA Simulation a b s t r a c t To improve the power supply availability in an island microgrid, this paper proposes a new approach that integrates distributed energy sources economically, reliably and efficiently. In an island mode, a microgrid must ensure its self-sufficiency of energy production since it cannot make an energetic exchange with a main grid. However, in this mode, the random behavior of the resources affected by meteorological factors presents a major constraint. The challenge related to the power availability in microgrids is to find a solution that faces the operation of intermittent power sources. The microgrid should guarantee a useful power management in order to achieve a high availability of energy. In this paper, we present a mathematical model to describe the influence of the meteorological factors on the sources production. We propose a multi-agent control strategy based on the production forecasting and load shedding for a high availability of the microgrid power supply. The proposed multi-agent system uses the master-slave model in which the communication and negotiation between the defined agents are performed by a concept of tokens. The developed control system is implemented on Spartan 6 FPGA-Board. The paper’s contribution is applied to a Tunisian petroleum platform where several blackouts are recorded between 2012 and 2014. Simulation and experimental results show clearly a high availability as a performance of the proposed control strategy. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Nowadays, many human activities depend critically on secure supplies of energy. For many energy consumers, such as hospitals, research centers and military bases, any temporary absence of elec- trical power can lead to material and human losses. The service quality and mainly the power supply availability are regarded as paramount factors [1]. Due to several technical and economic con- straints of conventional electrical networks, using the distributed ∗ Corresponding author at: School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Jinan University, China. ∗ ∗ Corresponding author at: Institute of Systems Engineering, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau. E-mail addresses: khalgui.mohamed@gmail.com (M. Khalgui), zhwli@xidian.edu.cn (Z. Li). energy production becomes a necessity [2]. Microgrid is a new gen- eration of electrical networks, which aims to integrate different electrical power technologies efficiently and reliably [3–5] in order to meet the power requirements of consumers [6]. A microgrid is composed of networked generation sources, energy storage devices and loads interconnected and controlled by an energy manage- ment system [7,8]. The potential for improving the power supply availability is one of the main motivations behind the develop- ment and deployment of microgrids [9,10], especially in an isolated mode [11,12]. In this operation mode, a microgrid becomes an autonomous power system. It should have its self-sufficiency in the power production and should be able to ensure an accepted qual- ity of energy requested by consumers [13,14]. In an island mode with the absence of renewable energy sources, the microgrid is supplied by backup sources. The major constraint to ensure a high power availability is the randomness and intermittent behaviour http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsr.2017.07.013 0378-7796/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.