Hierarchical Energy Management and Incentive‐Based Resource Sharing for Isolated Community Microgrids: A Multiagent Approach With Real‐Time Hardware Validation

ABSTRACT

Reliable electricity access for isolated communities remains a global challenge, with approximately 760 million people lacking grid connectivity. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a hierarchical energy management framework for community‐owned collaborative microgrids. The framework integrates a centralized fuzzy logic energy management system at each individual microgrid level with a decentralized three‐agent coordination layer at the collaborative network level, managed by a microgrid agent, a collaborative microgrid agent, and a market agent. The three agents work together to enable autonomous energy sharing among community households, governed by a criticality‐weighted incentive mechanism that aligns individual economic motivations with collective network stability. This work makes three distinct contributions beyond prior literature: (i) the first hierarchical dual‐layer framework combining local fuzzy logic control with multiagent collaborative coordination validated on FPGA‐based real‐time hardware; (ii) a criticality‐adjusted point‐based remuneration model that dynamically rewards energy contributions according to network stress levels, achieving an incentive gradient between normal and critical conditions; and (iii) real‐time validation on an OP1400 test bench with OP4150 FPGA‐based digital simulator under three representative 48‐h operational scenarios. All three microgrids maintained battery state of charge within the prescribed 20%–80% bounds throughout all simulation periods; intermicrogrid power transfers with 92% redistribution efficiency were recorded under surplus conditions; and the priority‐based criticality protocol successfully managed energy deficits without service interruption to high‐priority agents. The framework demonstrates practical deployability on low‐cost embedded hardware, communicable over standard protocols, and governable through a community cooperative structure.