An IoT-fog-cloud consensus-based energy management algorithm of multi-agent smart energy hubs considering packet losses and uncertainty

—As a result of the increasing demand for different energies with technological development, and with the rapid development of energy hubs (EHs), issues such as computation speed, big data and information privacy, robustness, etc. are becoming increasingly vital. Also, the problem of communication packet loss leads to an incompatibility between the generated and consumed energy. In response to the above problems, this paper proposes an Internet of things-Fog-Cloud distributed consensus-based energy management algorithm to optimally solve the energy mismatch problem in an EH environment considering communication information loss and uncertainties of some EH elements. A MATLAB/Simulink-based model of a hypothetical EH system is modified to support real-time communication. Two case studies are applied to explain the performance and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm under different packet loss scenarios. The system's sensitivity was studied depending on the number of iterations and the uncertainties of the renewable energy sources, energy prices, and load demands. Also, a comparison was made between the results obtained by the proposed method and the optimization results using the genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization techniques. The results prove the applicability and feasibility of the proposed method for the demand management system in EHs. The results show that the proposed algorithm decreases the daily system operating cost from 372.421 to 369.941 $ and the total CO2 emissions cost from 4848.5 to 4103.1 $. In addition, the daily energy mismatch between the generated and consumed values decreases from 579.85 to 0 kWh in the electrical system and from 435.14 to 0.073 kWhth in the heating system. Based on the previous results, the proposed algorithm of EHs contributes significantly to the development of sustainable cities.