  In this paper, a novel multi-agent based method is applied to the problem of
optimal sizing of the components of an islanded combined heating and power
residential microgrid such that the residential power and heat demands and
hydrogen refilling demands of the fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are met.
It is assumed that the proposed multi agent-based architecture consists of five
different agents, namely generation agent (GA), electrical and thermal loads
agent (LA), FCEV refilling station agent (SA), control agent (CA), and design
agent (DA) which are organized in three levels. Design agent (DA) is the main
agent of the proposed multi-agent system (MAS) that according to its
interactions with CA and by minimizing the total costs of the system through
particle swarm optimization (PSO), finds the optimal sizes of the system's
components. This study is performed for a typical stand-alone combined heating
and power microgrid.
