New Market Model with Social and Commercial Tiers for Improved Prosumer Trading in Microgrids

Bogdan-Constantin Neagu, Ovidiu Ivanov, Gheorghe Grigoras, Mihai Gavrilas and Dumitru-Marcel Istrate
Additional contact information
Bogdan-Constantin Neagu: Department of Power Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 700050 Iasi, Romania
Ovidiu Ivanov: Department of Power Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 700050 Iasi, Romania
Gheorghe Grigoras: Department of Power Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 700050 Iasi, Romania
Mihai Gavrilas: Department of Power Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 700050 Iasi, Romania
Dumitru-Marcel Istrate: Department of Power Engineering, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, 700050 Iasi, Romania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-43

Abstract: In the deregulated electricity markets, trading prices are determined by the offer-demand mechanism, and retail consumers can negotiate tariffs with their supplier of choice. For classic wholesale suppliers, the tariffs are determined by the prices of transactions performed on the wholesale market. In parallel with becoming eligible for participating in the market, the consumers use increasingly local generation sources based mostly on renewable electricity generation equipment such as Photovoltaic (PV) panels, and become prosumers. They want to be able to sell back to the market the generation surplus, in order to obtain the maximum benefits from their initial investment. This paper proposes a two-tier local market model oriented for prosumers and consumers connected in microgrids, based on the blockchain technologies and other technologies and concepts such as smart grids, crowdsourcing and energy poverty. Its goals are to improve the possibilities of local prosumers to sell electricity to local consumers and to increase their profitability, compared to the trading model often used in developing markets, of selling the surplus back to the grid via aggregators. The research aims to contribute to the sustainable development of the electricity sector using new and renewable sources of energy, state-of the art technologies and smart contracts, leading to prosumer proliferation and electricity cost reduction for consumers.

Keywords: local electricity market; smart grids; energy crowdsourcing; renewable energy sources; prosumers; blockchain technology; energy poverty; smart contracts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7265/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7265/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7265-:d:409056

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().