A novel metaheuristic strategy for energy pricing in active distribution networks and microgrids

Abstract

A fair energy pricing method in distribution networks using distributed energy resources (DERs) is presented in this paper. The pricing procedure is modeled in the form of the optimization problem. The objectives of this problem are total emission and network loss. The feasible region of the problem is determined with the aforementioned objectives, locational marginal prices and power factors of DERs as decision variables. In the recommended method, the loss/emission reduction is implemented by the generation of the DERs. furthermore, the profits of loss/emission reduction are allocated between DERs. In this way, more contribution consequent to more production leads to a higher price for DERs in comparison to the predefined market price. Given the nature of the problem, which has two objectives, a Group Search Optimization is employed with Chaotic search and Covariance matrix as a Multi-Objective problem (MGSOACC) to solve the pricing problem. Due to the validation of the proposed algorithm, a comparison between MOPSO, MOPSO-DFR, MOGA, and NSGA-II is applied consequently. In addition, the proposed method allows the decision-makers to apply their preferences among loss/emission reduction and IDSO's benefit. Additionally, in order to evaluate the proposed method, the pricing procedure is implemented on IEEE-32 bus test network.