An Integer Non-Cooperative Game Approach for the Transactive Control of Thermal Appliances in Energy Communities

Luciana Marques, Wadaed Uturbey and Miguel Heleno
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Luciana Marques: Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, MG, Brazil
Wadaed Uturbey: Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antonio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, MG, Brazil
Miguel Heleno: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-22

Abstract: Non-cooperative scheduling games can be used to coordinate residential loads in order to achieve a common goal while accounting for individual consumer’s interests, privacy, and autonomy. However, a significant portion of the residential flexibility—Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs) such as water and space heating/cooling appliances—has not been fully addressed under this game theoretic approach: their comfort constraints and integer control were not considered. This paper presents a method for properly including TCLs in this framework and discusses its application in energy communities. Specifically, we propose a general mathematical formulation for considering users’ comfort in non-cooperative games. We model the integer nature of the TCLs control with binary variables and show that optimal or close to optimal (less than 1%) solutions are reached. Moreover, different total cost functions can be used depending on the market context and the objective of the demand management program. To illustrate and discuss these aspects in practical applications, we used a case study of an energy community in Spain. The results show that the TC solutions are optimal or only 0.80% worse than optimal; different total cost functions result in different results (load curve smoothing or peak load reduction); consumers’ comfort is respected; and the proposed game model cooperates with consumers in order to minimize community’s costs.

Keywords: energy communities; load scheduling; non-cooperative games; thermostatically controlled loads; transactive control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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