Title: Novel market approach for locally balancing renewable energy production and flexible demand,
Abstract: Future electricity distribution grids will host a considerable share of
variable renewable energy sources and local storage resources. Moreover, they
will face new load structures due for example to the growth of the electric
vehicle market. These trends raise the need for new paradigms for distribution
grids operation, in which Distribution System Operators will increasingly rely
on demand side flexibility and households will progressively become prosumers
playing an active role on smart grid energy management. However, in present
energy management architectures, the lack of coordination among actors limits
the capability of the grid to enable the mentioned trends. In this paper we
tackle this problem by proposing an architecture that enables households to
autonomously exchange energy blocks and flexibility services with neighbors,
operators and market actors. The solution is based on a blockchain transactive
platform. We focus on a market application, where households can trade energy
with their neighbors, aimed to locally balancing renewable energy production.
We propose a market mechanism and dynamic transport prices that provide an
incentive for households to locally manage energy resources in a way that
responds to both pro-sumer and operator needs. We evaluate the impact of such
markets through comprehensive simulations using power flow analysis and
realistic load profiles, providing valuable insight for the design of
appropriate mechanisms and incentives.