A Study on Determining an Appropriate Power Trading Contracts to Promote Renewable Energy Systems

Abstract

The renewable energy systems have been in the spotlight as an alternative for environmental issues. Therefore, the governmental policies are being implemented to spread of promote power generation system using renewable energy in various countries around the world. In addition, Korea has also developed a policy called the power trading contract which can profit from electricity produced from renewable power generation system through Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and Korea Power Exchange (KPX). As a result, the power trading contracts can trade power after self-consuming in-house by using small-scale renewable power system for residential customers as well as electricity retailers. The power trading contracts applicable as a small-scale power system have a ‘Net metering (NM)’ and a ‘Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)’, and these two types of power trading contracts trade surplus power, but payment method of each power trading is different. The microgrid proposed in this paper is based on grid connected microgrid using Photovoltaic (PV) system and Energy Storage System (ESS), that supplied power to residential demand, we evaluate the operation cost of microgrid by power demand in each power trading contracts and propose the appropriate power trading contracts according to electricity demand