Distributed Energy Trading with Communication Constraints

Abstract

Distributed energy trading among energy prosumers (i.e., energy producers that also consume energy) is expected to bring significant cost benefits for the participating actors. In terms of the system architecture, physical grouping into microgrids (MG) can be further enhanced by communication infrastructure that provides support for flexible organization of prosumers into virtual MGs. However, how to manage prosumers using communication infrastructure is not widely investigated. In this paper, we propose a virtual MG architecture induced by communication constraints and consider its impact on total costs of energy trading. More precisely, we refine the distributed energy trading model considered in the recent literature with additional communication constraints and investigate impact of the resulting virtualized MG architecture on the overall energy trading costs. We show by simulations that there indeed exists an optimal energy trading architecture that achieves minimum possible energy trading cost, for any given model parameters.

Energy Peer-to-Peer Trading in Virtual Microgrids in Smart Grids: A Game-Theoretic Approach

“…P2P energy trading scheme has recently gained traction with diverse motivations [3], [4], [6], [7], [10]- [14]. The motivations include modelling the psychological behaviour of the traders, the problems of feed-in tariff (FiT), the imposition of energy dispatch limits on distributed energy generators (DEG) by some local governments [13], [15] and incentives [16], [17].…”

“…The motivations include modelling the psychological behaviour of the traders, the problems of feed-in tariff (FiT), the imposition of energy dispatch limits on distributed energy generators (DEG) by some local governments [13], [15] and incentives [16], [17]. These plethora of research literature that use P2P algorithm in the energy sector can be generally grouped into three areas [13], [18]; electric vehicles [19], microgrid [3], [20] and distribution network [21]. This study focuses on the microgrid area.…”

“…Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading offers a unique approach to produce and sell energy at the edge of the network and can help in reducing such charges. When these prosumers are coordinated using communication systems [3], [4], significant power network values could be achieved including reduced pollution and, increased energy network efficiency and security [5].Reliable communication systems play vital roles in smart grids [3], [6]. For example, communication infrastructure can be leveraged to regroup prosumers into logical clusters called virtual microgrids (VMGs) in order to improve performance and aid network management cost reduction [3], [4], [7].…”

“…Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading offers a unique approach to produce and sell energy at the edge of the network and can help in reducing such charges. When these prosumers are coordinated using communication systems [3], [4], significant power network values could be achieved including reduced pollution and, increased energy network efficiency and security [5].…”

“…Reliable communication systems play vital roles in smart grids [3], [6]. For example, communication infrastructure can be leveraged to regroup prosumers into logical clusters called virtual microgrids (VMGs) in order to improve performance and aid network management cost reduction [3], [4], [7].…”