**7. Conclusions**

This paper focused on a novel and flexible interconnecting framework for microgrids and corresponding energy management strategies, with the aim to maintain the energy balance and operational stability of the power system, and also alleviate the dependency on energy storage equipment. The presented framework enabled direct energy exchange between microgrids via the multiport energy router, based on the thought that adjacent microgrids may have complementarity in terms of the pattern of energy production and consumption, which can be utilized to compensate for each other's instant energy deficiency. Facilitated by the energy router, the energy management patterns of the interconnected microgrids were expanded considerably. The operational modes were analyzed, and corresponding control strategies were developed for the energy router-based interconnected microgrids. Four scenarios were investigated based on the MATLAB R2014b/Simulink platform, whichdemonstrated that:


Widespread implementations of the presented energy router-based interconnected microgrid scheme will promote the shift of the power system architecture from the traditional hierarchical framework to a more connective and interactive framework, which will be an essential step to build the Internet of Energy of the future.

**Acknowledgments:** This work is supported by the "Science and Technology Project Plan of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China" (Project No.: 2016-K1-018).

**Author Contributions:** All the authors have contributed significantly. Yingshu Liu conceived and designed the model and corresponding control methods; Yue Fang performed the simulation; Yue Fang and Jun Li analyzed the results; Jun Li made all graphics; Yingshu Liu and Yue Fang wrote and revised the paper.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


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