Model Predictive Control for Dynamic Load Scheduling in Small Power Systems

Many mobile platforms and small power systems utilize a set of loads, which consume some resource, to accomplish a task. If there are inadequate resources available to accomplish the system's task, load requests must be modified in some way. This paper considers the case where loads with a specific power profile may be supplied with reduced resources, shifted in time, or substituted for one another. This extends the capability of previous works where loads could only be shifted in time. The problem is solved using a model predictive controller and an auxiliary system with binary inputs to represent the time delay and substitution variables. The proposed method is applied to a representative electric warship power system. The results demonstrate the flexibility enabled with this method: not only can the power sources be controlled, but loads can be curtailed, delayed, or substituted for each other to accomplish the same task.