The proposal of the national “dual carbon” strategic goals and the improvement of the carbon trading market have placed higher demands on the dispatch and operation strategies of microgrids. Aiming at emission reduction and cost
lowering, this paper develops a dual-layer optimization model for low-carbon and economic operation of microgrids, which includes photovoltaic, wind power, diesel generator sets, and energy storage modules, while considering load constraints,charging/discharging  constraints  of  storage  devices,  and  carbon  quota  constraints.  The  outer-layer  planning  model introduces  a  carbon  asset  operation  mechanism  and  uses  an  improved  genetic  algorithm  to  optimize  microgrid  operation strategies,  improving  economic  benefits  while  ensuring  low-carbon  system operation.  The  inner-layer  demand  response model improves user electricity consumption behavior through incentive measures, optimizes the load curve, and feeds back the  user  response  after  implementing  demand  response  to  the  outer-layer  model.  The  inner  and  outer  layers  interact iteratively until both equipment configurations and load curves reach optimum, thereby achieving a bidirectional interaction between load and carbon emissions. Simulation results under multiple scenarios demonstrate that the proposed dual-layer optimization  model  can  significantly  reduce  microgrid  operation  costs  and  carbon  emissions.  Sensitivity  analysis  results show that carbon trading prices have a significant impact on operation strategies and costs.