Optimising Demand and Bid Matching in a Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading Model

This paper addresses Peer-to-Peer energy trading as one of the new market paradigms for the post-subsidy operation of distributed renewable energy sources in local energy networks. The owners of such facilities become prosumers and now play an active role in the local energy supply by trading electricity among each other. This paper proposes: 1). an internal pricing model among peers by using the supplydemand ratio; 2). a peer self-optimisation method for promoting self-consumption of renewable energy; and 3). a peer to peer optimisation method that matches prosumer peers by reducing the distances of their energy trading. The case study validates the effectiveness of the proposed Peer-to-Peer trading method with real data. The main improvements revealed are significant economic benefits for the community and prosumers, i.e., a lower exchange of electricity with the utility grid by increasing the self-consumption in the community, and a reduction of peak demand hours due to local energy trading

Direct Policy Search for Multiobjective Optimization of the Sizing and Operation of Citizen Energy Communities

Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) are increasingly promoted in the European Union and beyond as a form of locally operated microgrids. While traditional microgrid research is often focused on an optimized operation, individual preferences regarding conflicting objectives are becoming more important in such communities. In this study, we present an evolutionary algorithm that has previously been used for a multiobjective operation of microgrids and include the perspective of heat consumption and initial sizing decisions using direct policy search. This way, the developed tool can be used by CEC planners to integrate conflicting objectives of residents in the installation phase. We introduce the algorithm formulation and demonstrate its functionality on a case study for different ambient conditions. The results show the opportunities to size and operate CECs through the presented algorithm