A distributed algorithm with network‐independent step‐size and event‐triggered mechanism for economic dispatch problem

Abstract The economic dispatch problem (EDP) poses a significant challenge in energy management for modern power systems, particularly as these systems undergo expansion. This growth escalates the demand for communication resources and increases the risk of communication failures. To address this challenge, we propose a distributed algorithm with network‐independent step sizes and an event‐triggered mechanism, which reduces communication requirements and enhances adaptability. Unlike traditional methods, our algorithm uses network‐independent step sizes derived from each agent's local cost functions, thus eliminating the need for detailed network topology knowledge. The theoretical derivation identifies a range of step size values that depend solely on the objective function's strong convexity and the gradient's Lipschitz continuity. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is shown to achieve a linear convergence rate, assuming the event triggering threshold criteria are met for linear convergence. Numerical experiments further validate the effectiveness and advantages of our proposed distributed algorithm by demonstrating its ability to maintain good convergence characteristics while reducing communication frequency.