Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : This paper aims to present an architecture for planning of microgrids (MGs) in order to support system operator decision. In short,the proposed strategy is an iterative procedure that tries to find the optimal size of distributed energy resources (DER) whichattends the necessities of stakeholders. The architecture has five distributed and correlated stages named microgrid coordination,microgrid operation optimization, reliability assessment, contingency assessment, and searching mechanism. Since the DERselection involves multiple criteria and interests of different parts, it is required a multi-attribute decision system providing a list ofpossible configuration based on their relative importance as denoted by the stakeholders. Because of that, the Particle SwarmOptimization (PSO) is used to create the multidimensional space of search in which the optimal solution will be selected by meansof a Pareto front decision criteria. As result, the architecture provides a candidate solution to optimal size (optimal rated power) ofeach DER, that must be installed in the microgrid in order to have an optimal balance between technical, economical, social, andenvironmental aspects. To have realistic results, such strategy is performed on a case of study of a potential campus microgridprogram.