Abstract
This paper presents a novel hierarchical control solution and real-time controller for distributed power plants aimed for achieving full control capabilities and increased benefits from direct market participation, grid interaction and plant automation. The hierarchical control structure is introduced in detail, as well as the main functionalities inherent to each control layer. In addition, this paper, introduces a novel power sharing strategy based on the implementation of price-signal references, to achieve real-time control capabilities by optimally allocating the available resources in active distributed power plants. This power sharing strategy arise as an alternative to the transactive energy concept, being capable of providing real-time control capabilities while reducing information transmission and processing requirements. The proposed plant control strategy provides multi-objective real-time control capabilities.