Multi-step optimization of the purchasing options of power retailers to feed their portfolios of consumers

ABSTRACT: The liberalization of the retail market of electricity increased the tariff choice of end-use consumers. Retailers compete in the retail market for customers, obtaining private portfolios of end-use consumers to manage. Retailers buy electricity at wholesale markets to feed their customers' demands. They can use spot, derivatives, and bilateral markets to acquire the energy they need. The increasing levels of variable renewable energy sources trading at spot markets, increase the price volatility of these markets. To hedge against the volatility of spot prices, retailers may negotiate standard physical or financial bilateral contracts at derivatives markets. Alternatively, they can also negotiate private bilateral contracts. This article addresses the optimization of the retailers purchasing options, to increase their risk-return ratio from electricity markets, and offer more competitive tariffs to consumers. Considering the risk attitude of retailers, they use a multi-step purchasing model composed of a multi-level risk-return optimization and a decision support system. The article presents an agent-based study considering a retailer with a portfolio of 312 real-world consumers. Risk-seeking and risk-neutral retailers obtained a return up to 38%, less than 7% of the optimal return. However, risk-neutral retailers are subject to four times higher risk in their returns than risk-seeking retailers. The results support the conclusion that wholesale markets of electricity are more favourable to risk-seeking retailers, considering their real returns.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Automated Bilateral Trading of Energy by Alliances in Multi-Agent Electricity Markets

ABSTRACT: In liberalized markets, consumers can choose their electricity suppliers or be part of an energy community. The problem with communities is that they may not have enough weight to trade in markets, which can be overcome by forming coalitions. Electricity is traded in spot markets or through bilateral contracts involving consumers and suppliers. This paper is devoted to bilateral contracting, modeled as a negotiation process involving an iterative exchange of offers and counter-offers. It focuses on coalitions of energy communities. Specifically, it presents team and single-agent negotiation models, where each consumer has strategies, tactics, and decision models. Coalition agents are equipped with intra-team strategies and decision protocols. It also describes a study of bilateral contracts involving a seller agent and a coalition of energy communities. By allying into a coalition, members of energy communities reduced their average costs for electricity by between 2% (large consumers) and 64% (small consumers) according to their consumption. Their levelized cost reduction was 19%. The results demonstrate the power of coalitions when negotiating bilateral contracts and the benefit of a low-consumption members alliance with larger players.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Agent-based model of citizen energy communities used to negotiate bilateral contracts in electricity markets

ABSTRACT: The worldwide targets for carbon-neutral societies increased the penetration of distributed generation and storage. Smart cities now play a key role in achieving these targets by considering the alliances of their demand and supply assets as local citizen energy communities. These communities need to have enough weight to trade electricity in wholesale markets. Trading of electricity can be done in spot markets or by bilateral contracts involving customers and suppliers. This paper is devoted to bilateral contracting, which is modeled as a negotiation process involving an iterative exchange of offers and counter-offers. This article focuses on local citizen energy communities. Specifically, it presents team and single-agent negotiation models, where each member has its sets of strategies and tactics and also its decision model. Community agents are equipped with intra-team strategies and decision protocols. To evaluate the benefits of CECs, models of both coalition formation and management have been adapted. This paper also describes a case study on forward bilateral contracts, involving a retailer agent and three different types of citizen energy communities. The results demonstrate the benefits of CECs during the negotiation of private bilateral contracts of electricity. Furthermore, they also demonstrate that in the case of using a representative strategy, the selection of the mediator may be critical for achieving a good deal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Economic Sustainability of Variable Renewable Energy Considering the Negotiation of Different Support Schemes

ABSTRACT: The increase in the prices of fossil fuels and environmental issues are leading to a high investment in wind power and solar photovoltaic all over Europe, reducing its dependence on imported fossil fuels. The European countries started incentive programs for investment in these renewable technologies, which consisted of fixed and market premium feed-in tariffs. These feed-in schemes involve long-term contracts with updated prices over inflation. These incentives highly increase the investment and installation of new renewable capacity in Europe. They lead to high renewable penetrations in power systems but originate a tariff deficit due to the difference between market prices and the tariffs paid to these technologies. End-use consumers pay the tariff deficit on retail tariffs. This work analyzes the market-based remuneration of variable renewable energy considering different support schemes and the role of risk-sharing contracts in mitigating the spot price volatility. It presents models able to negotiate bilateral contracts considering risk management, notably risk attitude and risk sharing, bid establishment, and clause (by-laws) negotiation. Furthermore, to evaluate the economic sustainability of renewable generation in Spain, it presents a study for different 12-year support schemes starting in 2010. The results confirmed that, in the case of using risk-sharing contracts during crisis periods, the incidence of low energy prices (price "cannibalization") decreases, such as the tariff deficit. Furthermore, in the case of high-inflation periods, these contracts hedge against the increase in retail prices, resulting in an economic surplus for consumers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of local citizen energy communities in the road to carbon-neutral power systems: outcomes from a case study in Portugal

ABSTRACT: Global warming contributes to the worldwide goal of a sustainable carbon-neutral society. Currently, hydroelectric, wind and solar power plants are the most competitive renewable technologies. They are limited to the primary resource availability, but while hydroelectric power plants (HPPs) can have storage capacity but have several geographical limitations, wind and solar power plants have variable renewable energy (VRE) with stochastic profiles, requiring a substantially higher investment when equipped with battery energy storage systems. One of the most affordable solutions to compensate the stochastic behaviour of VRE is the active participation of consumers with demand response capability. Therefore, the role of citizen energy communities (CECs) can be important towards a carbon-neutral society. This work presents the economic and environmental advantages of CECs, by aggregating consumers, prosumers and VRE at the distribution level, considering microgrid trades, but also establishing bilateral agreements with large-scale VRE and HPPs, and participating in electricity markets. Results from the case-study prove the advantages of CECs and self-consumption. Currently, CECs have potential to be carbon-neutral in relation to electricity consumption and reduce consumers' costs with its variable term until 77%. In the future, electrification may allow CECs to be fully carbon-neutral, if they increase their flexibility portfolio.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Management of local citizen energy communities and bilateral contracting in multi-agent electricity markets

ABSTRACT: Over the last few decades, the electricity sector has experienced several changes, resulting in different electricity markets (EMs) models and paradigms. In particular, liberalization has led to the establishment of a wholesale market for electricity generation and a retail market for electricity retailing. In competitive EMs, customers can do the following: freely choose their electricity suppliers; invest in variable renewable energy such as solar photovoltaic; become prosumers; or form local alliances such as Citizen Energy Communities (CECs). Trading of electricity can be done in spot and derivatives markets, or by bilateral contracts. This article focuses on CECs. Specifically, it presents how agent-based local consumers can form alliances as CECs, manage their resources, and trade on EMs. It also presents a review of how agent-based systems can model and support the formation and interaction of alliances in the electricity sector. The CEC can trade electricity directly with sellers through private bilateral agreements. During the negotiation of private bilateral contracts, the CEC receives the prices and volumes of their members and according to its negotiation strategy, tries to satisfy the electricity demands of all members and reduce their costs for electricity.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Least-cost non-RES thermal power plants mix in power systems with majority penetrations of renewable energy

ABSTRACT: The ambitious targets of the European Union (EU) for a greater penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) in all areas of activity have led to power systems with growing levels of variable RES (VRES) all over the EU. Considering these targets, the EU countries presented their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECP) with their expected capacity until 2030. The NECPs considered a relevant increase in the VRES capacity and in some cases a decrease in the capacity of dispatchable power plants. VRES have near-zero marginal costs and increase the volatility of the net-load due to the stochastic profile of their production. These characteristics increase the need to maintain fast-response dispatchable power plants to guarantee the security of supply and also decrease market prices. Thus, governments promote externalities, as capacity mechanisms and other incentives to these players, guaranteeing their economic sustainability. This study presents the optimization of the non-RES thermal capacity of the Iberian power system by 2030, considering the least-cost algorithm. Considering a cooperative scenario between Portugal and Spain, it is possible to reduce the system costs by 17.40%, the curtailments quantity by 21.93%, the number of market-splitting hours by 43.26% and the dioxide carbon emissions by 4.76%.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Personalidade de marca : pesquisa geo-localizada a conteúdos publicados em motores de pesquisa online no destino Açores

Dissertação de Mestrado, Gestão do Turismo Internacional, 3 de Fevereiro de 2017, Universidade dos Açores.Com o progresso tecnológico a impulsionar o constante crescimento do Turismo, e consequente desenvolvimento da competitividade entre destinos, para um qualquer destino turístico torna-se hoje imperativo conhecer a sua personalidade de marca publicada através dos principais canais de comunicação online. Numa indústria em que a relação entre Expectativa e Experiência é cada vez mais determinante, conhecer os atributos de personalidade de marca comunicados exatamente na forma em que é disponibilizada ao potencial visitante, distante geograficamente, pode fornecer informações cruciais ao planeamento de estratégias para influenciar favoravelmente o desenvolvimento de uma imagem e posicionamento desejados. Esta investigação, por natureza exploratória, através de análise de conteúdos identifica, especificamente para o mercado norte-americano: os comportamentos na pesquisa por informação online acerca do arquipélago das Ilhas dos Açores como destino turístico para férias; a personalidade de marca transmitida pelos websites imediatamente disponibilizados no mais frequentemente utilizado motor de pesquisa online; e, diferenças entre websites com interesses de natureza distinta pela promoção do destino.ABSTRACT: With the technological advances empowering the constant growth of Tourism, destination competitiveness increases, and for any tourism destination it becomes imperative to acknowledge the brand personality published 24/7 by the main online communication channels. In the Tourism industry, where the balance between Expectation and Experience becomes increasingly determinant, to be aware of the brand’s personality attributes as they are communicated at a geographic distance to the potential visitor, can provide crucial information to strategic planning towards a favourable influence on the development of a desired image and positioning. This research, exploratory by nature, by using content analysis identifies, specifically for the North American market: the behaviour when searching online for information related to the archipelago of the Azores Islands as tourism destination for holidays; the brand personality transmitted by the websites immediately listed on the main online search engine; and, differences between websites with distinct interests regarding destination promotion

Bits and bytes of financial regulation

Since 2008, banks have spent more than €342 billion on settlements, enforcement actions, and fines, and until 2020 according to Reuters this value is expected to rise to €400 billion. As a result, technological solutions were implemented to help Financial Institutions deal with the increasing compliance burden and regulators addressing the constant difficulties of enforcing and monitoring regulatory requirements to limit risks and promote financial stability. This led to the emergence of a whole new movement in the Financial Industry - Regulatory Technology. In this dissertation, the aim is to analyze how technology can help Financial Institutions deal with risky behavior and regulatory demands in the most efficient and cost-effective way and to show how extremely complex this process can be, by following the deployment of an electronic communications surveillance tool within a top-tier firm. Electronic communications are crucial parts of investigations such as the subprime mortgage crisis, the London Interbank Offered Rate and the currency market manipulation scandals or the COMEX gold and silver futures markets spoofing scandal. To appropriately address the nature of these threats, holistic risk assessment tools that gather these records (e-mail, chat, voice, trade logs, etc.), discover correlations and provide a credible output that necessitates supervisory review are of extreme importance. The challenge for Front-Office Supervisors is finding the proverbial “needle in a haystack” – the combination of Email, Chats, transactions records, voice logs, and other reports – that should be flagged for suspicious activity and reviewed in conjunction with Compliance and Anti-Fraud teams.Desde 2008, os bancos já gastaram mais de €342 biliões em acordos, ações de fiscalização e multas, e até 2020 segundo a Reuters, este valor deverá subir para €400 biliões. Como resultado, foram implementadas soluções tecnológicas para ajudar as Instituições Financeiras na superação do aumento exponencial de requisitos regulatórios, e para fortalecer a capacidade de resposta dos reguladores face às constantes dificuldades de impor e monitorizar esses mesmos requisitos com o objetivo de limitar os riscos incorridos e por sua vez promover a estabilidade financeira. O que levou ao aparecimento de um novo movimento na Indústria Financeira – Regulatory Technology (Regtech). Nesta dissertação, o objetivo é analisar como a tecnologia pode ajudar as Instituições Financeiras a lidar com comportamentos indevidos e requisitos regulatórios da forma mais eficiente e rentável e mostrar quão extremamente complexo este processo pode ser, ao seguir de perto a implementação de uma ferramenta de vigilância de comunicações eletrónicas dentro de uma grande Instituição Financeira. As comunicações eletrónicas são partes cruciais de investigações de escândalos financeiros, como observado na crise do suprime, na manipulação da London Interbank Offered Rate, do mercado monetário e dos mercados de futuros do ouro e prata na COMEX. Para lidar adequadamente com a natureza destas ameaças, ferramentas holísticas de supervisão reúnem registos (e-mail, conversas, voz, registos de transações etc.), descobrem correlações e fornecem um importante e credível resultado que por sua vez requer revisão por parte dos supervisores. O desafio para os supervisores do Front-Office é encontrar a proverbial "agulha no palheiro" - a combinação de e-mails, conversas, transações, registos de voz e outros relatórios - que deve ser sinalizada como atividade suspeita e analisada em conjunto com as equipas de Compliance e Anti-fraude

Bits and bytes of financial regulation: the RegTech environment

Since 2008, banks have spent more than €342 billion on settlements, enforcement actions, and fines, and until 2020 according to Reuters this value is expected to rise to €400 billion. As a result, technological solutions were implemented to help financial institutions deal with the increasing compliance burden and regulators addressing the constant difficulties of enforcing and monitoring regulatory requirements to limit risks and promote financial stability. This led to the emergence of a whole new movement in the Financial Industry: Regulatory Technology or Regtech. The aim of this paper is to explain the regtech environment in the financial sector. We highlight how technology can help financial institutions dealing with risky behavior and regulatory demands in the most efficient and cost-effective way.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio